Summer's Encounter
by Mysterygirl102
Summary: For years, the Guardians assumed that there was no such thing as Eternal Believers (teens, adults and elderly people who believe in the Guardians). But that all changes one summer when they meet Maddie Hathaway, a teenage girl who still believes in the Guardians and can thereby interact with them. Their encounter with the girl makes them wonder if Eternal Believers do exist.
1. Chapter 1

**Prolouge**

It is highly assumed that it is only children who believe in the Guardians with all their hearts, since teenagers, adults and the elderly live too far in reality to be convicenced by the magic that lives in this world. The reason for this is because at a specific age, they were told by their family that the Guardians don't exist which is mixed with being taught in school about all the scientific explanitions of all the magic that happens in this world. But the non existence of grown believers is only partially true. There are some teenagers, adults and elderly people who still believe in the Guardians even though they passed childhood. They are known as Eternal Believers. Just like children who believe, Eternal Believers can see and interact with the Guardians. However, since they are no longer children themselves, they are not shown as lights on the globe, thereby furthur encouraging the idea that Eternal Believers don't exist.

The beliefs of Eternal Believers are not as powerful as the beliefs of children, but they are powerful enough to keep the Guardians from completely dissapearing into nothingness. Also just like children who believe, Eternal Believers can turn living Nightmares into a dream sand manifestations of their own dreams and restore a Guardian that has either been defeated or destroyed. Children who see or interacts with any of the Guardians during their childhood have a high percent chance of becoming Eternal Believers when they grow up.

Since an encounter with an Eternal Believer has never - or not yet- occured, they are highly discounted and conviced to only exist in stories.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

 **June 5th, 2015 3:35 p.m.**

Seventeen-year-old Maddie Hathaway was driving along the road in the red, eight passenger SUV that her parents have gotten her for her sixteenth birthday last year. Only seven more miles before she reached Burgess, Pennesylvani, which was the small town she was born and spent most of her childhood in. It was a long drive getting there from Washington D.C. where she and her family currently resided right now. They had to move to the White House when her father got elected President of the United States while she was in her pre-teen years. She did'nt like living in Washington D.C. because she did'nt have any friends there... or real friends who like her as a person, yet it's difficult to make friends who like you for yourself when you're the child of the President of the United States. They probably only want to be your friend just so they can go to the White House and meet the President.

But her relationship with the leader of the country was not the only thing she did'nt like about living in D.C.. Maddie also had a hard time in school because she was bullied and teased everyday by the most popular girls in school whom everyone calls "The Blondies" because all the girls in the group had blonde hair and would only accept people into their clique if they're both blonde haired and considered cool by their standards. Even though Maddie was really pretty and was the daughter of the President of the United States, the Blondies don't consider her cool enough to be one of them. They knew that people don't really like Maddie as a person, they only like the fact that she's the President's daughter. Besides, Maddie did'nt have blonde hair like they did, instead, she had waist length wavy black hair which was the reason one of their nicknames for her is Blackhead. Out of all the kids in school, Maddie was their favorite person to bully because they knew she was meek and had a hard time standing up for herself, which is true because everytime she would try to stand up to the Blondies, Camille Shannon, the tallest and toughest of the clique would give her a glare that said "You better back off, or else..." which would scare Maddie enough to back down.

Maddie felt relieved when the last day of school ended yesterday, for summer vacation meant three whole months with no Blondies. Summer was also the only time she was allowed to travel to Burgess where she had real friends since she had to stay in Washington D.C. for the other seasons because she had school. The first year she lived in the White House, she begged her parents to let her spend the summers in Burgess. They at first refused her request, but after months of acting responsible - such as helping out around the residence, doing things without her parents telling her to do them, and not arguing with them especially when they tell her no about somthing she asks from them - she was able to convince them that she was mature enough to get them to have second thoughs on it.

She wasn't allowed to stay in the family mansion all by herself for three months, so everytime she stayed in Burgess for the summer, she had to stay with Karen Bennett, who was a close friend of her mother. Karen was a single mother with two kids, a son named Jamie and a daughter named Sophie. Maddie had a strong love for children and she espically loved Jamie and Sophie to the point where they are like a little brother and sister to her. Those kids were the main reason she wanted to spend her summer's in Burgess. The Bennetts also had a female greyhound named Abby who got along really well with Maddie's beagle hound, Ike, who right now was sleeping in the backseat. Maddie never went anywhere without Ike, for he was her only real friend to be with her while she live in Washington D.C..

Half an hour later, she pulled up into the Bennett's driveway. She put the car in park, turned off the engine and exited out. The front door to the house opened and little Sophie came running out towards her with excitment. Sophie was an adorable two-year-old little girl with emerald green eyes and blond hair with bangs cut short at her left eye and gets longer at her right eye.

"Maddie!" Sophie shouted with joy as she dashed towards Maddie with opened arms.

"Hey Sophie!" Maddie happily greeted her with a big smile. As soon as Sophie reached her, Maddie lifted the little toddler up and playfully swung her around, causing the little girl to laugh with amusement. She placed Sophie back down in order to greet Jamie, an eight-year-old boy with unkept brown hair, brown eyes and a round youthful face.

"Hey Maddie." Jamie said with a smile as he walked up to her.

"Hi Jamie." Maddie said to him returning a smile. She then noticed that one of the boy's teeth was missing and a new one was growing in its place. "I see you got a vistit from the Tooth Fairy."

"Yea! You won't believe what caused me to get this one out!" Jamie said in a way that indicated that he was excited to tell her the story of how he lost his tooth.

"Oh, and what's that?" Maddie asked. The way the boy sounded eagered to tell her made her interested in what he had to say.

"Jack Frost!" Sophie said, which made Maddie look at the toddler with a curious look on her face.

"Jack Frost?" she said confused yet interested.

"He got it in a sledding accident." Karen Bennett explained as she walked towards Maddie to greet her. She was a grown woman with brown hair which was always done in a bun and glasses over her hazel eyes. Karen had been a single mother ever since her husband died in a car accident three months before Sophie was born.

"Sledding accident?" Maddie said feeling worried about Jamie when Karen mentioned that he was in a sledding accident.

"Don't worry, I didn't get hurt." Jamie assured her, not wanting Maddie to feel worried "But what Sophie said was right, it was caused by Jack Frost."

Maddie looked at Karen who made a smile and shrug that said "Kids and their wild imaginations today!". Maddie has heard of Jack Frost before and was interested to hear Jamie's story about the winter figure.

Suddenly, the sound of barking was heard and the Bennett's greyhound Abby came running outside towards Maddie's SUV with excitment. The sound of Abby's barking got the attention of Maddie's little Ike who jumped up agaist the car window and began pawing at it while barking with excitment, wanting to get out and greet his dog friend.

"Okay, okay, hold on you two." Maddie said to both of the dogs. She opened the car door and right away, Ike jumped out and he and Abby sniffed each other before they circled one another in a friendly, playful way.

"It's so good to have you back for the summer!" Karen said to Maddie.

"You guys are the reason I always want to come here for summer vacation." Maddie told her with a smile. Since it was the beginning of summer vacation, Jamie was out of school and it was a good thing Maddie was during the warm weater because then Karen had someone to watch Jamie and Sophie while she was at work from 8 A.M. till 3 P.M.. Afterwards, Maddie would go to her afternoon summer job at Cafe 56 and work there from 3:30 P.M. till 9:00 P.M.. On her days off from work, Maddie would take Jamie, Sophie and Jamie's friends out someplace fun or play with water guns and water balloons at the park, espicially on days where it's really hot outside.

"Well go ahead and unpack, and then come into the kitchen for some sandwiches." Karen told her before she picked up Sophie and walked back in the house with Jamie, Abby and Ike behind her.

Maddie opened up the trunk to her SUV and got out her suitcase and art kit which she used to work on drawings at the end of the day. After closing the trunk, she carried her things inside the house in order to unpack in the guest bedroom.

 **I hoped you guys enjoyed the first chapter to Summer's Encounter which is the first story in a saga I'm creating called "The Season Saga" which would be about the Guardians helping a teenage girl learn to be strong and brave and to stand up for herself. Since Maddie is an O.C. from my Monsters vs Aliens fanfiction, a couple of the stories will be crossovers between Rise of the Guardians and Monsters vs. Aliens.**

 **Just to relieve those who are fangirls of Jack Frost, I'm not going to pair Maddie up with Jack Frost, She and Jack will just be friends.**

 **Please Review what you think of the story so far and let me know if I need to improve on anything or if there is something in the story I should fix. Jack Frost will appear in the next chapter coming soon.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

 **June 8th, 2015 12:45 p.m.**

Carrying his magical staff, Jack Frost rode on the flowing wind through the sky. He had just finished making it snow in Santiago, Chile and was now making his way to Burgess, Pennsylvania. He wanted to make a surprise visit to his first believer, Jamie Bennett, and have a little bit of fun with him and his friends. This was the first time Jack was visiting Burgess during the summer. Before becoming a Guardian, Jack never bothered to visit Burgess during the summer since years before, he found his winter magic to be useless during the hot, sunny weather. Plus, he couldn't be seen or heard by anyone since nobody believed in him... until two months ago around Easter, Jamie Bennett began to believe in him.

Two months ago, Pitch Black, the Boogeyman tried to destroy the children's belief in the Guardians so that there would only be fear in the world, which would make him powerful. In order for the Guardians to stop Pitch and bring back the children's belief, The Man in the Moon choose Jack Frost as a new guardian, making him the guardian of fun.

Jamie was the last child to still believe in the Guardians when every child in the whole world began to give up their beliefs and Jack was able to help Jamie keep his belief in the Guardians just as they were about to go out. The event caused Jamie to believe in Jack Frost and therefore see him, making Jack feel overjoyed to finally be seen by someone in three hundred years. Togeather, along with the Guardians, Jack and Jamie were able to get Jamie's friends to believe in the Guardians again and defeat Pitch, therefore restoring the beliefs in every child in the world.

A few minutes later, Jack arrived in Burgess. It was hot and sunny outside today, but the heat didn't bother him one bit for his skin was cold as ice, keeping him cooled off. He spotted Jamie, Sophie and Jamie's friends at the same park where he caused Jamie to fly his sled over a big statue not long ago. The kids were having fun soaking each other by squirting water guns and throwing water balloons, the perfect game to play on a hot summer day such as this one.

Jack noticed a teenage girl playing with the kids, having as much fun getting soaked as they were. The girl looked close to how old Jack was when he died saving his younger sister while he was human. She had waist length black hair which right now was tied back in a low ponytail and soaked from the water game. The girl also had beautiful almond shaped sapphire blue eyes with lond eyelashes, a heart shaped face with a bit of roundness to it, full lips and an hourglass figure with perfectly shaped legs. Jack didn't feel any romatic or sexual attraction towards the girl, but he did think she was really pretty.

Jack stood a distance away and happily watched as the kids and the girl used their water guns on each other and threw water balloons. Once in a while, one of them would go to the water well to fefill their water guns or restock themselves with water balloons.

"Hey! Anyone wanna play Guardians?" Jamie asked everyone who all responded with agreement.

"I'll be Santa Clause!" Caleb called out.

"I call the Easter Bunny!" his twin brother Claude shouted.

"I wanna be the Tooth Fairy!" Pippa shouted, she then looked at Sophie "Do you wanna be one of my little fairies Soph?"

"Ok!" Sophie happily responded with a giggle.

"I'll be the Sandman." Monty joined in.

"All right! then that makes me Jack Frost!" Jamie happily said.

"Is this a game where you pretend to be the Guardians?" the teenage girl asked looking interested in the game "How do you play?"

"It's a game where you play the Guardians and battle an army of Nightmares." Jamie answered "You can be a believer that we're trying to rescue. We fight the Nightmares, rescue you and take you to a safe place."

"Now just a moment there." Cupcake teased Jamie with a mischievous grin "You forgotten Pitch Black, the Boogeyman."

Jamie only laughed "The Boogeyman doesn't scare me."

"Oh really?" Cupcake said miscievously while putting up her water gun and aimed it at Jamie "Then I Pitch Black, challenge you Jack Frost to a battle."

She squirted water at Jamie who only doged every single blow with a chuckle.

"Take that! And That! And This!" Cupcake shouted trying to waterblast Jamie only to end up missing each time.

"GET THE SHADOW MAN!" Jamie shouted with glee as he began to chase Cupcake, trying to shoot her with his water gun.

Jack watched with amusement as Jamie chased Cupcake around the park while the others stood by and watched laughing with joy.

"Freeze him to solid ice!" Pippa shouted in a cheerful way. Jamie and Cupcake began to chase each other in circles around the teenage girl who smiled and laughed at their joyful chase.

"Oh save me Jack Frost! Save me!" the girl said in a playful dramatic way while laughing. Jamie took out a water balloon and threw it at Cupcake. The water balloon hit her in the leg, causing the pudgy girl to hold up that leg while hopping on the other, playfully prentending to have been wounded.

"Oh! Ouchie that's not fair!" Cupcake said playfully "Mommy!"

Jack laughed at the when Cupcake sucked her thumb after playfully shouting Mommy. The way Cupcake was playing Pitch was hilarious. It made him wish that Pich actcually did act like a cry baby when he and the Guardians defeated him. Just imagining it made him laugh so hard, he hugged himself and slowly kneeled on the ground with his eyes tight shut.

"Yahoo! Now we got you!" Caleb shouted with joy as all the kids began to spray their water guns and throw their water balloons at Cupcake.

"Oh mercy! Mercy!" Cupcake shouted playfully. She then put her hands on her chest and slowly collapsed to the ground while groaning, playfully pretending to be dying "They got me... I'm dying."

While Cupcake played dead, Jamie said "Now this is the part where we rescue the believer and take her somewhere safe."

He then went over to the teenage girl, took her hand and he and others, along with Cupcake began to lead her somewhere.

"Come on Maddie lets go!" Jamie happily said to the girl as he and the others led her away from the park, in the direction that made Jack realize that the safe place must be at his pond. He followed them all the way there.

"So this is Jack Frost's pond." Maddie said with a soft smile as soon as they arrived.

"Yea, this is the last place we seen him." Jamie told her.

"And the place you'll see him for the seconde time." Jack said with a smile as he flew over to them. As soon as he heard that voice, Jamie turned around and his face lit up with extreme delight.

"Jack!" Jamie shouted with joy as he ran over to Jack and gave him a huge hug. The other kids were also excited to see Jack and so they went over to greet him. The teenage girl, Maddie looked at Jack with wide astounded eyes. Noticing that she was looking in his direction, Jack turned his head to see if she was looking at someone behind him. There was no one there.

"She can't be looking at me... is she?" Jack thought in his head "I thought I could only be seen by children who believe in me."

"What are you doing here Jack?" Jamie asked him with happiness "It's summer."

"I just wanted to make a visit to my first believer." Jack told Jamie with a smile "Who's your friend here?"

"Oh yea, Jack this is Maddie Hathaway." Jamie introduced Jack to the girl "Maddie, this is Jack Frost."

"It's nice to finally meet you Jack Frost." Maddie said to him with a sweet smile as she shook his hand "Jamie has told me so much about you."

All Jack could do was stand there and stay silent with wide eyes as Maddie shook his hand. He was surpised and confused. This girl is a teenager and she can see him.

"Are you Ok?" Maddie asked, wondering why Jack is silent and surprised.

"You can see me?" Jack asked her.

"Yea of course I can see you." Maddie answered starting to become confused herself.

"How is it that you can see me but no one else your age can?" Jack said, he then suddenly remebered somthing "Wait... do you still believe in Santa Clause?"

"Yes." Maddie answered him with a nod.

"The Easter Bunny?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Maddie answered again.

"The Sandman? The Tooth Fairy?"

"Both yes." Maddie answered "I strongly believe in all of them, and when Jamie told me about you, I began to strongly believe in you too. It's weird I know. I'm a teenage girl and I still believe in childhood tales."

Jack was surprised to hear this. He always thought that only children believed in the Guardians. He'd never thought that older people were capable of believeing in the Guardians as well. Finally for the first time in three hundred years, he is seen by someone who is physically close to his age.

"It's nice to meet you too." Jack told Maddie with a smile.

"We were just about to go swimming in the pond." Maddie said to Jack smiling back at him "Wanna join us?"

"I don't have swim trunks." Jack said in a joking way while chuckling.

"That's ok, the kids and I don't have our swimsuites either, so we're going to swim in our clothes." Maddie said laughing back. She and the kids then began to run into the water and splash around. Shruging his shoulders while smiling, Jack set his staff down on the ground and joined in on the fun. For the rest of the day, Jack, Maddie and the kids had a fun time swimming and splashing around in the pond.

 **I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. The next one will be the same as this chapter, execpt it will show what's going on inside Maddie's head.**

 **Please review, chapter 3 coming soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3**

 **June 8th, 2015 11:45 a.m.**

Carrying three water guns in her hands, Maddie walked down the street with Jamie and Sophie. It was a hot day outside today, so they all decided to go pick up Jamie's friends and go to the park to have a water fight, the perfect game for a hot day where you can have fun and cool off at the same time.

For the last three days, Maddie had been listening to Jamie's wonderful story about how he met Jack Frost and the Guardians, Santa Clause, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. It all began on a snow day shortyly before easter two months ago, while having a snowball fight with his friends, Jamie went flying on his sled, into the streets and over the huge statue at the park. An incident that he later discovered was caused by Jack Frost. After landing in a snow bank, he accidently got hit by a sofa which caused him to lose a tooth.

Later on in the middle of the night that night, Jamie woke up and saw Santa Clause, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny in his room. For a moment there, Jamie felt really happy to see them. But that moment was killed when Abby growled at the Easter Bunny and started chasing him around the room before Jamie and Abby were put to sleep by the Sandman's dreamsand.

The next day on Easter, Jamie and his friends tried to find easter eggs left by the Easter Bunny, only to find none. He didn't give up when his friends did and even told them about his encounter with the Guardians the previous night, but they believed his encounter with them was a dream and so they told him that at least he still had dreams and not nightmares like they were having.

That night, Jamie began to believe that his encounter with the Guardians really was a dream after all and therefore was starting to lose hope in them, until all of a sudden, it began to snow in his room, making him realize that he was being visited by Jack Frost. This causes Jamie to believe in Jack Frost and therefore see him, making him Jack Frost's first believer.

Togeather, along with the Guardians and Jamie's friends, Jack and Jamie were able to defeat Pitch Black, the Boogeyman who was the cause behind the children having nightmares. Pitch Black had attempted to destroy the children's belief in the Guardians so that there would only be fear in the world, which made him powerful. Luckily, Pitch was stopped before he and his army of nightmares could take over the world.

Maddie became so intrigued by Jamie's story about the Guardians, that it increased her belief in them and therefore began to strongly believe in Jack Frost as well.

Even though Maddie was seventeen-years-old, she still believed in Santa Clause, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. It was her deepest secret that she only revieled to children, whom she got along better with than with kids her own age. If kids her age knew she still believed in childhood tales, they would think she was weird and begin teasing and bullying her about it. It would even give the Blondies another good reason to torment her. They would probably even give her the name, overgrown thumb sucker. For that reason, she kept her belief a secret, a secret that only children knew about.

Moments later, Maddie, Jamie and Sophie arrived at Caleb and Claude's house. Caleb and Claude were twins, both dark skined, dark haired and brown eyes. You can tell whose who because Claude had his hair combed back unlike his brother Caleb who always wore a hat. Today Caleb was wearing a baseball cap on his head backwards.

"Hey Jamie! Hey Sophie! Hi Maddie!" Claude said as he and his brother came out the front door with their water guns in their hands.

"Hi boys!" Maddie greeted them with a sweet smile.

"You guys up for a water fight at the park?" Jamie asked them enthusiastically.

"Are we ever?" Claude said happily "On a hot day like this, we sure could use some cooling off."

"Now we just need to pick up Pippa, Monty and Cupcake, then we'll head to the park." Maddie told the kids. After telling their mother where they were going and saying goodbye, Caleb and Claude walked down the street with Maddie, Jamie and Sophie to head over to where Pippa and Monty lived. Pippa and Monty were sitting on the front porch of Monty's house with Pippa holding their water guns and Monty holding bags of water balloons when they arrived.

"Hey guys!" Pippa greeted them with a smile. Pippa was a tomboyish girl with short reddish brown hair that goes past her ears, brown eyes, tan skin and plush cheeks.

"Hi Maddie." Monty said to Maddie with a shy smile while waving at her a little. Monty was an abnormally insecure and easily frighted young boy with blond hair and blue eyes which he wore red glasses over.

"Hi Pippa! Hi Monty!" Maddie greeted them back with a warm smile.

"I picked this for you." Monty said to Maddie, handing her a pretty white daisy.

"Awww! thanks Monty! You're so sweet!" Maddie smiled at him while she took the flower and put it behind her ear, making it look appealing. Monty's sweetness was the main reason she liked the little boy.

"You're welcome." Monty smiled bashfully while his face turned red. Jamie, Caleb, Claude and Pippa knew why Monty was blushing and why he gave Maddie a flower. Monty had a huge crush on Maddie and so was very bashful around her and would blush everytime he did somthing nice for her.

"You two ready to go?" Maddie asked Monty and Pippa.

"We sure are!" Pippa said with excitment.

"I hope you guys are planning to invite me!" a voice from behind them said. It was Cupcake, a ten-year-old large girl with brown hair cut past her ears and brown eyes. Cupcake was a nicknamed that everyone called the girl because of her fondess for unicorns and the color pink and her large size. Her real name was Agnes, but she hated that name and so prefers being called Cupcake. Cupcake a little girl who was brave and tough but can also be a little too agressive now and again, which can make her seem like a bully to anyone who meets her. Despite the girl's agressiveness, Maddie loved Cupcake just as much as she loved all of Jamie's friends, for she knew that deep down, Cupcake had a good heart.

"Of course, we were just about to head over to your place to pick you up!" Maddie said to Cupcake with a welcoming smile.

"Let's head to the park then!" Claude said excited. Now that everyone was gathered, the group began to head over towards the park. The kids couldn't wait to get over there to play water fight with each other and Maddie. The kids liked Maddie because not only was she fun to have around, but she was a girl who is in high school who is willing to hang out with elementry school age kids like them, an idea they all thought was cool.

When they arrived at the park, everyone took turns at the water well, filling their water guns and water balloons.

"Heads up!" Jamie shouted as he threw a water balloon at Maddie. Cold water exploded all over Maddie, cooling her off from the heat and causing her to laugh with amusement. She pumped her water gun and sprayed water at Jamie who laughed in return. That was when the whole water game started. Water was splashed and sprayed almost everywhere and all over everyone in the group, making them soaked to the skin. Everyone laughed with amusement as the cold water was cooling them off from the hot sun. Every now and again, one of them would go to the water well and refill their water guns or retock on water balloons. After forty minutes of soggy fun, Jamie suggested a new game.

"Hey! Anyone wanna play Guardians?" He asked everyone.

"I'll be Santa Clause!" Caleb called out.

"I call the Easter Bunny!" Claude shouted.

"I wanna be the Tooth Fairy!" Pippa shouted. She then looked at Sophie "Wanna be one of my little fairies Soph?"

"Ok!" Sophie answered with a giggle.

"I'll be the Sandman!" Monty joined in.

"All right! Then that makes me Jack Frost!" Jamie happily said.

"Is this a game where you pretend to be the Guardians?" Maddie asked Jamie. She was interested in the game that the young boy had invented and wanted to play along "How do you play?"

"It's a game where you play the Guardians and battle an army of Nightmares." Jamie answered her "You can be a believer that we're trying to rescue. We fight the Nightmares, rescue you and take you to a safe place."

"Now just a moment there." Cupcake teased Jamie with a mischievious grin "You forgotten Pitch Black, the Boogeyman."

"The Boogeyman doesn't scare me." Jamie said while laughing.

"Oh really?" Cupcake said mischieviously as she pointed her pink water gun at Jamie "Then I Pitch Black, challenge you Jack Frost to a battle."

She attemped to spray water at Jamie who dodge every single blow while laughing.

"Take that! And that! And this!" Cupcake shouted trying to waterblast Jamie only to end up missing each time.

"GET THE SHADOW MAN!" Jamie shouted with joy. He then began to chase Cupcake, trying to blast her with water from his water gun. Everyone laughed with amusement as they watched Jamie and Cupcake chase each other around the park.

"Freeze him to solid ice!" Pippa cheered. Maddie laughed as Jamie and Cupcake began to chase each other in circles around her. This game was really fun indeed.

"Oh save me Jack Frost! Save me!" She said in a playful dramatic way, wanting to play along in the game.

Jamie then took out a water balloon and threw it at Cupcake. The water balloon hit Cupcake in the leg, splashing cold water all over her. Cupcake held up that leg while hoping on the other, playfully pretending to have been wounded.

"Oh! Ouchie that's not fair!" She said playfully "Mommy!"

Cupcake playfully sucked her thumbed when she cried out Mommy, causing Maddie and the other kids to laugh at her sillyness.

"Yahoo! Now we got you!" Caleb shouted with joy as all the kids began to spray their water guns and throw their water balloons at Cupcake.

"Oh mercy! Mercy!" Cupcake shouted playfully. She then put her hands on her chest and slowly collapsed to the ground while groaning, playfully pretending to be dying "They got me... I'm dying."

"Now this is the part where we rescue the believer and take her somewhere safe." Jamie said as he went over to Maddie and took her hand "Come on Maddie lets go!"

"So where is this safe place?" Maddie asked Jamie as she happily followed him and his friends.

"Jack Frost's pond!" Jamie told her "We'll show you the way."

Maddie followed Jamie and the other kids from the park all the way to a pond not far from the Bennett's house. Along the way, Maddie suggested that they should all go swimming in the pond in their clothes to which everyone agreed.

"So this is Jack Frost's pond." Maddie said with a soft smile when they arrived.

"Yea, this is the last place we seen him." Jamie answered her.

"And the place where you'll see him for the second time." A voice suddenly said. Maddie looked up from Jamie and saw a tall, slim teenage boy who appears to be eightteen-years-old with whitish blond hair, striking blue eyes and really pale skin. The boy wore a blue hooded sweather with what looks like frost around the collar and brown knee length pants that was tattered and frayed at the bottom. The boy was also barefooted as he had no shoes on his feet. In one of his hands, the boy held a staff with a G shaped arch, resembling a shepherd's crook.

"Jack!" Jamie shouted with joy as he ran over to the boy and gave him a huge hug.

"Jack?" Maddie said in her head, surprised when she heard Jamie say the boy's name "Jack Frost?"

She looked at the boy with wide surprised eyes as the other kids went over to greet him. Jack Frost was definitely how Maddie pictured he would look like. She thought he would be an adult or an old man. But no, Jack Frost was a kid, close to her age.

"What are you doing here Jack?" Jamie asked Jack with happiness "It's summer."

"I just wanted to make a visit to my first believer." Jack answered him with a smile. He then looked at Maddie "Who's your friend here?"

"Oh yea, Jack this is Maddie Hathaway." Jamie introduced Jack to Maddie "Maddie, this is Jack Frost."

Maddie gave Jack a sweet smile as she shook his hand in greeting "It's nice to finally meet you Jack Frost. Jamie has told me so much about you."

Jack didn't say anything back to her. Instead, he stood there silently and looked at her with a surprised face with wide eyes as Maddie shook his hand.

"Are you Ok?" Maddie asked, wondering why he was silent.

"You can see me?" Jack asked her.

"Yea, of course I can see you." Maddie answered him, confused by his question. She had no idea what made him think that she couldn't see him.

"How is it that you can see me but no one else your age can?" Jack asked her sounding confused "Wait... Do you still believe in Santa Clause?"

"Yes." Maddie answered him.

"The Easter Bunny?"

"Yes."

"The Sandman? The Tooth Fairy?"

"Both yes. I strongly believe in all of them, and when Jamie told me about you, I began to strongly believe in you to. It's weird I know. I'm a teenage girl and I still believe in childhood tales." Maddie said hoping that Jack wouldn't think she was weird all because she still believed in childhood figures. She was relieved to see that he didn't when a soft smile developed on his face.

"It's nice to meet you too." Jack told her.

"We were just about to go swimming in the pond." Maddie happily said to him smiling back "Wanna join us?"

"I don't have swim trunks." Jack said in a teasing way while chuckling.

"That's ok, the kids and I don't have our swimsuites either, so we're going to swim in our clothes." Maddie said laughing back. She and the kids then began to run into the water and splashed around and Jack joined in secondes later. Everyone was having great time, swimming and splashing around in the pond.

"Jamie was right!" Maddie thought in her head as she and Jack playfully splashed each other "Jack Frost is a fun guy to have around!"

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter to Summer's Encounter. The next chapter one will have the other guardians in it.**

 **I would appreciate your thoughs on this so far by reviewing. Chapter four coming soon.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4**

 **June 8th, 2015 10:15 p.m.**

At the North Pole, Nicolas St. North was in his office working on an ice sculpted scale model of a new toy. He was trying to make a toy ship that can also turn into a submarine, and he was trying to be as careful as possible, for even the smallest mistake can make the whole thing crumble to pieces and he would have to start over again, for the fifth time in a row. The Yetis were outside the office doing a wonderful job making the toys, while the Elves tested them to make sure they're safe and fun, believeing that they are the ones who make the toys. At this rate, North was positive that they will have all the toys finished just in time for Christmas, which was six months away.

Putting all of his focus on the ice model, he carefully placed the chisel on it and held the miniature hammer above. Not too hard, otherwise it would break to pieces, but not too gentle, or there would be not progress made. He was just about to tap the hammer on the chisel. SLAM! one of the Yetis threw open the door, babbling, startling North just enough to cause him to accidently use too much force on the hammer, thereby shattering his hard work for the fifth time. North grunted in annoyance. He almost had it that time. After taking a moment to collect himself, he looked at the Yeti with a displeased look on his face.

"When will you ever learn to knock?" He told the Yeti.

"Waba gata." the Yeti appologized "Gabaniti Jaba."

"Jacks here?" North said "Well let him in."

A few moments later, Jack Frost entered North's. North became puzzled when he saw that the frost boy was soaking wet. Water was dripping onto the floor, creating a puddle at his feet and a trail of huge drops behind him.

"Jack, why are you all wet?" North asked the boy.

"I went swimming in the pond with Jamie and the kids." Jack answered him.

"Get a towel for Jack." North order a couple of the elves who right away followed command and went over to the cabinet, coming back with a dry towel for Jack.

"Jack, next time you go swimming, dry off before you make a visit here." North told him "You're dripping water onto the floor."

"Sorry." Jack apologized as he took the towel from the elves and wrapped it around himself "Anyway, you are so not going to believe what I just encountered today!"

"I'm listening." North said pricking up his ears, interested in what the boy had to say.

"Well, I already told you I was visiting Jamie today." Jack began his story "I found him and his friends at the park, playing with this teenage girl who is physically close to my age. When I went over to greet Jamie - and I am dead serious - the girl said hello to me and shook my hand."

"Jack... are you saying that this teenage girl saw you?" North asked astonished with wide eyes by what he had just heard.

"Yes!" Jack answered him, smiling with satifaction "When I saw her looking at me, I at first thought she was looking at someone behind me. I turned my head but didn't see anyone. When she went over to greet me and shook my hand, she didn't pass through me like everyone else her age. I asked her if she still believed in the Guardians and she answered yes. She also told me that she began to strongly believe in me when Jamie told her about me."

North rubbed his chin, fasinated by what he had heard Jack had encounterd "This is very extordinary!"

North went over to one of the bookshelves in his office and took out the same large book that was used in the Guardian ceremony where Jack took the oath of the Guardians two months ago. He turned the pages looking for a specific page before finally stopping.

"Ah Ha! Here we are." North said, pointing at the page "The girl you encountered, she is an Eternal Believer."

"Eternal Believer?" Jack asked puzzled.

"Eternal Believers are teenagers, adults and elderly people who still believe in the Guardians with all their heart, even though they've passed childhood." North explained to him "These type of believers are assumed to only exist in stories, for there has never been an encounter with one... until today."

"I've always thought that only children who believed in us." Jack told him.

"So did I." North agreed "This girl that you meet, she may be proof that Eternal Believers do exist."

"You mean, she may not be the only teenager who still believes in the Guardians?" Jack said with delight.

"Yes, there may be others out there like her." North answered him with confidence "We must inform the others about this immediatly!"

"I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they hear this!" Jack said enthusiastically with a wide smile.

And so North and Jack headed over to the globe room immediatly. After North told the Yetis and the Elves to prepare for company, he reached for the large lever, twists and presses it. The globe pulsed with energy which lit up and zoomed up the axis shaft towards the roof to the tallest spire of the fortress, making the northern lights radiate outwards, signaling the other Guardians. A short while later, Bunny, Tooth and Sandy arrived at the North Pole, wondering what the gathering was for this time.

"It's only been two months and already the children of the world are in danger again?" Bunny asked puzzled. It has been two months since the last time they were assembled, when they learned that Pitch Black had returned and was planning to destroy the children's belief in the Guardians, therefore making the Man in the Moon choose Jack Frost as a new guardian so they could stop him.

"No, the children are safe, I promise you." North assured him. Dreamsand formed into a question mark above the Sandman's head. He was confused, if the children weren't in danger again, then why were they assembled?

"I have called you all because something very extrodinary has happened... something we all thought would never happen." North began to tell them "There has been an encounter... with an Eternal Believer."

Sandy and Bunny were shocked by the news. Tooth was busy giving order to her fairies when the word Eternal Believer has gotten her attention.

"Did you say there has been an encounter with an Eternal Believer?" She asked surpised with wide eyes. Her little fairies were also surprised by the news.

"Yes, Jack just told me that he had interacted with a teenage girl." North answered her "He said the girl saw him and talked to him."

"Seriously mate?" Bunny said with annoyance. His surpised reaction turn into an irritated reaction when he hear that it was Jack who made an encounter with an Eternal Believer. The winter spirit was known for playing tricks on people, and now Bunny believes this just another one of Jack's tricks. "You brought us togeather all because you fell for one of Frost Bite's tricks?"

"Bunny, this is not a trick this time, I swear." Jack told him "The girl even shook my hand, and she didn't pass through me like everyone else her age does. This is because she still believes in us."

"You musta been plannin this for a long time mate." Bunny assumed "Well I'll let ya know I not gonna fall for your tricks this time."

"I don't know Bunny." Tooth said in an unsure way "I think Jack may be telling the truth."

"Hey, we all know these kind of believers don't exist." Bunny told her "Every child who grows up stops believing in us ok. There's no way a teenager, adult or elderly person can still believe in us, they live too far in reality."

"But not this girl." Jack said to him "She is seventeen-years-old and she still believes in us."

"Come on mate, if this Eternal Believer really does exist, she would be shown as a light on the globe." Bunny argued pointing to the large globe "But she doesn't, so Eternal Believers do not exist."

"The reason why she isn't shown as a light on the globe is because she is no longer a child." North told him, reading him a section of the page that described Eternal Believers "Only children who believe are shown as lights on the globe. Eternal Believers don't appear as lights because the power in their belief is not as strong as the power of the belief in children."

"No, they aren't shown on the globe because they don't exist." Bunny argued "We all know Jack likes to play tricks, this is just another one of them."

Jack couldn't diagree with Bunny on pointing out that Jack was a trickster who played pranks on people. But this wasn't a trick this time, he knew what he saw and he wanted all the other Guardians to believe him. He needed to some way to prove Bunny that this girl really does exist.

"This girl really does still believe in us and I can prove it to you." Jack challenged him.

"Oh ya mate? And how do ya suppose you're gonna do that?" Bunny said, unmoved by Jack's challenging attitude.

"I'll convice her to come here with me, so she can meet all of you." Jack told him "Then you'll see that I'm not lying."

"All right we'll make a bet." Bunny said to him "If you can prove this girl is an Eternal Believer, then I'll let ya use your winter magic in the Warren whenever you feel like it for six months. But if ya can't, then you can't be allowed to play tricks on me for a whole six months."

"Then it's a bet!" Jack told him with confidence. He knew that he was going to win the bet because he is certain that he can prove that the girl he met is an Eternal Believer.

"This is so exciting!" Tooth said filled with excited at what she heard. Her little fairies also squealed with joy "We are actually going to meet a real life Eternal Believer!"

Sandy nodded in agreement as he smiled. This is definitly an event the Guardians will never forget. For years they all assumed that grown believers didn't exist... until now. The girl that Jack had encounter and plans to bring to the North Pole may be proof that they actually do exist.

 **I figured if Jack told the other Guardians about Maddie, all of them would react with shock and surpise, except for Bunny who thinks Jack was just pulling another prank.**

 **Please review if there is somthing I need to improve on, because I feel like I didn't make good progress with this chapter. The next one will have Jack trying to convince Maddie to come to the North Pole with him.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 5**

 **June 9th, 2015 7:15 a.m.**

"Ike! No! Not on Mr. Watson's daffodils!" Maddie rebuked her dog while tugging on his leash, pulling him away from some yellow daffodils that decorated the side of the driveway of the house next to them. It was the home of Mr. Watson, a grumpy old man who treasured the yellow daffodils he planted. He would be furiouse if Ike did his business on his preciouse flowers. Last time Ike did that, Mr. Watson warned Maddie that if her little beast did it again, he would take extreme measures, and they wouldn't be pretty. So Maddie led Ike to a bush on the other side of the street and waited for him to finish his business before they continued onward.

Maddie and Ike were taking a morning walk through the neighborhood. The sunrise glowed in the sky, painting the clouds with gorgeous shades of orange, pink and purple. The sunrise looked so beautiful that Maddie decided to take a picture of it with her cell phone, so that she could draw a picture of it later with her art kit. Pictures last longer than the real thing after all. The morning also had a cool - but not too cold - temperature that she knows will fade as the day gets warmer. There was also the lovely sound of birds singing their morning melody in the atmosphere, bringing a soothing song to her ears. Truly a nice relaxing scene. These kind of mornings were the reason Maddie was an early bird. When the sun is up, she's up, so she could admire the beauty the morning brings to this world.

Ten minutes later, Maddie and Ike turned around and retrailed their way back to the house. Karen will be leaving for work in thirty five minutes and Maddie needed to be there for her job was to watch Jamie and Sophie until Karen came back in the afternoon. She didn't mind though, she loved being around those kids. Her strong love for children inspires her to want to go to college so she can become a kindergarden and elementry school teacher. She had turned in an application for Burgess University last year in December and was scheduled for an on campus interview next month.

As she walked along the sidewalk with Ike, a gust of wind suddenly blew, giving her a little push. There wasn't suppose to be any wind this morning, so Maddie became confused until she heard Jack Frost's voice behind her.

"Have we met before?" Jack said to her in a friendly teasing way as he made a landing on the ground behind her.

"Oh, Jack it's you." Maddie said smiling at him "Never thought I'd see you again so soon."

Before Jack could say anything, Ike growled and started barking at him before trying to attack, the leash being the only thing holding him back. Jack took a step back from the dog, looking a little bit concerned. The little beagle was acting agressive because he thought that Jack was either going to kidnap or harm Maddie and so he was trying to protect his beloved owner.

"Ike! No! Down boy! Down!" Maddie said tugging him back by the leash. She then gently cupped her little dog's head in her hands in order to make him look at her before she began to speak to him in a calm, but firm tone "It's okay boy, it's okay, that's Jack Frost, he's a friend, he's not gonna hurt us, it's alright... understand?"

Understanding his owner, Ike calmed down and stoped growling and barking while he layed down on the ground and rolled on his back.

"Good boy." Maddie said to Ike as she rubbed his belly. She then looked up at Jack, giving him an apologetic smile "Sorry about him. He's not use to strangers."

"It's okay, I understand, he was only trying to protect you." Jack told her with a smile "Anyway, there's somthing I wanna ask you."

"Okay, what's on your mind?" Maddie asked him.

"I told the other guardians about our encounter yesterday." Jack began to tell her "Almost all of them were surprised, obviously because you're the first teenager we ever encountered who still believes in us."

"And..." Maddie said, wanting Jack to continue what he was going to tell her.

"Well the thing is, only Santa Clause, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy believe me. The Easter Bunnt doesn't." Jack continued "I'm well known for playing tricks on people, especially Bunny, and when I told him about you, he thought I was just playing another trick."

"So you wanna prove to him that I really do still believe in the guardians." Maddie said, predicting what Jack was thinking.

"Yea, and I think the best way to do that would be to take you over to the North Pole so you can meet the other guardians." Jack told her "Maybe this afternoon?"

"Of course! I'd love to meet them" Maddie agreed with him "But today wouldn't be the best time to do it. I have to babysit Jamie and Sophie until their mother gets home. Then afterwards, I have to work at my summer afternoon job until nine. How about this Saturday? Jamie and Sohie's mother and I both have the day off that day."

"Yea, that can work." Jack agreed with her "It's better than never."

Maddie started to look forward to Saturday. She had believed in the guardians her entire life, yet she'd never thought that she would meet them in person one day. She felt like the luckiest teenage girl in the world. Plus, she wanted to see what the North Pole was like ever since she was a three-year-old little girl living in a universe full of dreams and imagination, and still does to this day.

"Then it's settled. We'll meet at your pond this Saturday at nine in the morning." Maddie told him "I'll tell Jamie and Sophie's mother that I will be going to Philadelphia that day."

"Sounds like a plan." Jack said to her "See you this Saturday?"

"You bet!" Maddie assured him. But before Jack could take off, Maddie's feeling of excitement towards meeting the guardians began to turn into agitation. She was wondering wheather or not the guardians would like her. After all, she was going to be the first teenager to ever meet them. What if they don't have enough room in their hearts to love a teenage believer? What if they only care about children who believe in them?

"Wait!" Maddie said to Jack before he could start flying away. Jack stopped where he was and looked at Maddie with a concerned look. "What if they don't like me."

"Are you kidding?" Jack said, chuckling at what he had heard Maddie tell him "You're a teenager who still believes in the guardians! Of course they'll love you!"

"Okay." Maddie said, still feeling worried yet trusting the frost boy. Jack Frost began to float on the wind, ready to take off.

"Don't worry, they'll love you, I promise." Jack reasurred her. He then took off, leaving Maddie and her dog where they stood. Maddie and Ike continued to make their way back towards the Bennett's house. Maddie still felt worried, but she decided to put it behind her until this Saturday. After all, she really shouldn't judge if someone would like her or not before even meeting them.

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter to Summer's Encounter. The next one will be a repeat of this one, except it will show what going on in Jack's mind.**

 **Reviews would be very appreciated. Chapter 6 coming soon.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6**

 **June 9th, 2015 7:00 a.m.**

Jack soared through the wind over Burgess, making his way over to the Bennett residence. If Maddie was still asleep, he will wait until she was wide awake before deciding to go have a chat with her. Hoping she would say yes, Jack wanted to bring Maddie over to the North Pole today, so he can introduce her to the other guardians and to prove to Bunny that he wasn't lying when he claimed that the girl still believed in them with all her heart. Jack also had two other motivations for proving of the girl's existence to the Easter kangeroo. One, he would win the bet they made with one another and get to use his winter magic in Bunny's Warren whenever he wanted for the next six months. Two, once Bunny meets Maddie, he will have to admit that Jack was right he was wrong. Plus, this experience will make Bunny have to believe Jack the next time he decides to play one of his tricks on the rabbit. These were very good motivations for Jack indeed.

As the wind guided him, Jack unexpectedly spotted Maddie walking along the sidewalk with a small beagle. Her hair was different this time, for it was loose, dry and wavy, but he was able to reconize her face and eyes. Maddie must be an early riser though Jack didn't know the reason why. Maybe it had somthing to do with how cool the morning felt and how glorious the sunrise looked.

He floated down towards her, causing the wind to give the girl a little push, gracefully blowing her dark hair forward, making her stop in her tracks to figure out what just happened.

"Have we met before?" Jack said to her in a friendly teasing way as he landed on the ground behind her. Maddie turned around with a confused look on her face that turned into a smile of delight when she realized that it was Jack.

"Oh! Jack it's you." Maddie said to him in a warm friendly tone "Never thought I'd see you again so soon."

Jack was just about to tell Maddie how good it was to see her again, when suddenly, the little beagle that was with her began to growl and bark in defense while trying to lunge at him, the leash Maddie was gripping tightly onto being the only thing restraining the little canine. Jack took a few steps back away from the little dog, looking at it with a concerened look on his face. He guessed that the dog was acting this way because it thought that Jack was either going to kidnap or harm Maddie and so it was trying to protect her.

"Ike! No! Down boy! Down!" Maddie said to the little beagle, tugging it back by the leash. She then kneeled down and gently cupped the little dog's head in her hands before beginning to speak in a calm but firm tone. "It's okay boy, it's okay, that's Jack Frost, he's a friend, he's not gonna hurt us, it's alright... understand?"

The little beagle stopped growling and barking. He layed down on the ground and rolled onto his back in an affectionate way while panting in calm, happy tone, as if he understood what Maddie just told him and was showing her that he feels secured.

"Good boy." Maddie said to her dog as she rubbed his belly while smiling at him appreciatively. She then looked up at Jack and gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry about him. He's not use to strangers."

"It's okay, I understand, he was only trying to protect you." Jack said to Maddie, giving her a forgiving smile. That small incident kind of made Jack realize how Bunny felt when Jamie's greyhound, Abby growled and tried to attack him, when they came to collect Jamie's tooth the night before Easter no too long ago.

"Anyway, there's something I wanna ask you." Jack said, almost forgetting what he wanted to see Maddie for.

"Okay, what's on your mind?" Maddie asked him.

"I told the other guardians about our encounter yesterday." Jack began to tell her "Almost all of them were surprised, obiously because you're the first teenager we ever encountered who still believes in us."

"And..." Maddie said, indicating that she wanted Jack to continue what he was going to tell her.

Well the thing is, only Santa Clause, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy believe me. The Easter Bunny doesn't." Jack continued "I'm well known for playing tricks on people, espically Bunny, and when I told him about you, he thought I was just playing another trick."

"So you wanna prove to him that I really do still believe in the guardians." Maddie predicted.

"Yea, and I think the best way to do that would be to take you over to the North Pole so you can meet the other guardians." Jack told her "Maybe this afternoon?"

"Of course! I'd love to meet them!" Maddie agreed with joy "But today wouldn't be the best time to do it. I have to babysit Jamie and Sophie until their mother gets home. Then afterwards, I have to work at my summer afternoon job until nine. How about this Saturday? Jamie and Sophie's mother and I both have the day off that day."

"Yea that could work." Jack agreed "It's better than never."

Jack felt very eagered to take Maddie over to the North Pole, wanting to introduce her to the other guardians. He didn't want to wait until Saturday, he wanted to do it as soon as possible, but he also understood that Maddie's duties were really important to her. She had to keep an eye on Jamie and Sophie so they wouldn't be left alone while Mrs. Bennett was at work, espically since Sophie was just a two-year-old toddler who can easily get into trouble if no one was watching her. He didn't want to make Maddie break Mrs. Bennett's trust by leaving the kids alone when she had to watch them. He also didn't want to get Maddie fired from her summer job by not showing up at her shift.

"Then it's settled. We'll meet at your pond this Saturday at nine in the morning." Maddie told him "I'll tell Jamie and Sophie's mother that I will be going to Philadelphia that day."

"Sounds like a plan." Jack said to her "See you this Saturday?"

"You bet." Maddie assured him. Before Jack could take off to tell the other guardians about the plan, he was suddenly stopped by Maddie who looked as though she was having seconds thoughts about the arranged meeting.

"Wait!" Maddie said to him with a worried look on her face, just as he was about to take off. He looked at her with a concerned look on his face "What if they don't like me."

"Are you kidding?" Jack said, chuckling at what he had just heard the girl say "You're a teenager who still believes in the guardians! Of course they'll love you!"

"Okay." Maddie said to him, looking a little less worried.

"Don't worry, they'll love you, I promise." Jack reasurred her. He then took off so he could tell the guardians about the arranged meeting with the girl. He was positve that they would like her, for he remebered their reactions when he told them about his plan to prove to Bunny that Maddie was a real life Eternal Believer, Tooth and her little fairies being the most excited. He couldn't wait to see the look on Bunny's face when he meets the girl.

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Honestly, writing Jack's side of this part of the story made me feel more motivated than writing Maddie's side. The next chapter will have Jack take Maddie to the North Pole where she will finally meet the other guardians.**

 **Reviews would be appreciated, Next chapter coming soon.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 7**

 **June 13th, 2015 9:15 a.m.**

Sitting on a large boulder near the pond, Maddie waited patiently for Jack Frost to arrive. A few days ago, she told Karen that she made plans to go to Philadelphia for the day to shop for a Father's day gift for her Dad. It was the perfect believable excuse since Father's day was eight days away. In addition, it also reminded Maddie that she needed to find a Father's day gift to send to her Dad in the mail, along with the right size box to send it in, packaging tape to seal it and maybe some bubble wrap if the gift is fragile. She also wants to make absolutly sure what she finds is somthing he would really love, for her father was the kind of man who just loved receiving presents, especially during holidays, special occasions and his birthday, and she wanted to make her Dad happy by sending him a present in the mail, since she couldn't be with him and Mom on Father's day. Even though he embarresses her a lot and acts dim witted now and again, deep down, Maddie loved her father with all her heart.

Maddie became so lost on her train of thoughts about Father's day that she didn't notice Jack's arrival.

"Hey Maddie! What's up?" Jack greeted her with a smile.

"Huh?... Oh, Hey Jack!" Maddie greeted him, smiling back while coming out of her train of thoughts.

"So what do ya say? Ready to go?" Jack asked her with enthusiasm.

"Yea! Just one question." Maddie answered, giving him a questionable look "The North Pole is... I don't know... hundreds... maybe thousands of miles away. How are we gonna get there and back before the it gets late?"

"We fly of course!" Jack happily answered her while slowly waving his left hand to make a flying gesture.

"Fly?" Maddie was confused by the answer that Jack had just given her.

"Yea, how else did I get over there and back here in less than twelve hours four days ago?"

"Well... _you_ can fly, but _I_ can't." Maddie pointed out.

"No problem, I'll carry you on my back."

They were going to fly to the North Pole. Maddie was extremely amazed and excited by what she had just heard. The idea of flying up in the air through the sky, being able to touch the clouds, feeling a breeze blow in her hair and seeing a bird's eye view of the ground below her made her feel astonished. She could picture it feeling like being in one of those flying dreams that the Sandman would give children. A truely amazing feeling.

"Well... I've always wanted to know what it would be like fly without being in an airplane or any other type of space craft." Maddie said with an impressed smile on her face "So yea, okay."

"Then let's roll!" Jack happily responded. He turned he back to Maddie to allow her to cling on to him.

"Okay!" Maddie agreed with him. She wraped her arms around Jack's shoulders and locked her hands togeather, making sure her grip wasn't too tight so as not to choke him. As she clinged onto Jack, she noticed realized that the frost boy was cold to touch. He felt like extremely cold ice, almost like a corpse. She shrugged it off, figuring that if the boy is a winter spirit, then he should at least feel as cold as winter.

"Don't be afraid." Jack softly told her.

"I'm not afraid."

With the girl clinging onto him, Jack had the wind levitate them both up in the and they soared higer and higher up to the clouds. As they were in the sky, Maddie looked down at the ground below them and right away began to feel a sense of panic. They must be about three hundred feet off the ground. What if she accidentally slips her grasp? Then she would fall out of the sky towards her death. She held onto Jack tighter, now feeling scared. This was scarier than she anticipated.

"Okay! NOW I'm afraid!" She told Jack in a terrorized tone of voice, eyes wide with fear.

"It's okay! I got you!" Jack told Maddie, trying to ease her "Just don't look down!"

Maddie closed her eyes tight shut so she wouldn't have to see the ground below them. Her breathing become heavier with fear and her heart was racing so fast that she thought it was going to burst out of her chest or that she would have a heart attack and die. Her heavy breathing was soon mixed with whimpering. Seeing how scared she was, Jack tried to sooth as best as he can.

"Don't be scared, I won't let you fall, I promise, Trust me."

Maddie still felt scared, but she put her trust in the frost boy. After almost twenty mintues of being in the air, she began to feel at ease, just enough to open one of her eyes. She saw that she could no longer see the ground because now they were so high up, that the clouds block the sight of the ground below. She then opened the other eye and the heavy weight of fear was lifted off her. This whole thing had turned from being scary to feeling awsome. She was flying, she was actually flying, and it felt amazing.

As they flew underneath a huge fluffy white cloud, Maddie carefully let go of Jack with one hand so she could reach up and touch it, wanting to know what a cloud felt like. But even though her hand ran through the cloud touching it, she felt nothing. It was as if she was trying to touch mist yet could feel nothing at all. It felt no different than touching thin air. At first she felt dissapointed by the her experience, but she quickly shrugged it off and continued enjoying her flight through the sky with Jack Frost, making a smile of extreme delight whiling laughing happily.

Maddie enjoyed what was probably hours of flying, when all of a sudden, it began to feel like it was freezing, as if summer had turned into an extremely cold winter. She began to shiver and chitter her teeth, a body's response to cold temperatures, trying to keep the body heat inside. That fact that Maddie was holding onto an extremely cold boy didn't help the problem. Snow also began to fall hard, not too hard like a blizzard. She guessed that this indicated they were at the North Pole now.

When Jack and Maddie passed through some clouds, Maddie's silently gasp with wide amazed eyes when she saw a gigantic russian palace in a massive ice canyon. It was truly an amazing view to gaze upon. So this is where Santa Clause lives. It's way better than how she imagined it as a child.

Finally, Maddie and Jack the front door of the fortress, making a landing. Maddie released her grasp and wraped her arms around herself, still shivering from the freezing cold. As she chittered her teeth, she began to wish she had brought warmer clothes and a jacket. Jack knocked on the front door, and after a few minutes, it opened to reveal an ape like creature that was taller than an average man with long white and brown hair all over its body.

"A yeti." Maddie whispered quietly to herself with an astonished look on her face "A real life yeti."

"Hey Phil." Jack greeted the yeti.

Phil didn't respond back to Jack as he was too bust staring at Maddie with shock. He was looking at her as though she was an evil spy, an assassin or a huge disgusting bug that must be squashed immediatly. Maddie began to feel uneasy with the yeti's stare. She didn't know what he was thinking, but she could tell it was not good.

Noticing what Phil was staring at, Jack began to reassure the yeti "It's okay Phil, she's with me."

At Jack's words, Phil eased up and let both of the teens inside. While getting warmed up, Maddie and Jack followed the yeti through the fortress and into a large gigantic room located at the center of the palace. Maddie became amazed by the large globe of the earth in the center of the room. The continents on the globe had lights all over them, making her wonder what they were suppose to be.

Phil left Jack and Maddie alone for fifthteen minutes before returning with someone. An immense man; tall, buff and a little rotund with bright blue eyes, thick black eyebrows and a long white beard and mustache. He wore a red kosovorotka with the sleeves rolled up to the middle of his forearms, black trousers with a big diamond pattern woven sash belt around the waist and brown volenki boots. Maddie noticed tatoos covering both of the man's forearms with the word "Naughty" written in bold ink on one arm and "Nice" written on the other. She immediatly reconized who the man is... Santa Clause. He looked a little bit different than how she pictured him during her childhood, but how he looks in real life was way better in her opinion.

"Ah, Jack, so this is the teenage believer you told us about." he said while giving Maddie a warm welcoming smile. The man had a thick russian accent. He held out his large hand in order for the girl to shake it in greeting "It's so nice to finally meet you young lady. I am Nicholas St. North, or Santa Clause as the children of the world call me."

"I can't tell you how happy I am to actually meet you in person!" Maddie told him with a smile while shaking his hand "My names Madison Hathaway. Everyone calls me Maddie for short."

"Madison, what a lovely name!" North commented.

"Thank you!"

Maddie then saw three other guardians walk in. Right away, she reconized them as the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy. Just like North, they were different from how she imagined them as a kid.

The Easter Bunny was a Pooka. A rabbit standing between six to seven feet tall with grayish-blue fur, flower-like imprints on both his forehead and shoulders and bright emerald green eyes. He wore leather bracers set with orange stones on his forearms, a single strap holster and leather wrappings on his feet.

The Tooth Fairy looked like a part human, part hummingbird hybrid with tan skin, pretty violet eyes and looks to be stuck forever at the age of twenty one. Instead of hair, she had green, blue and greenish-blue feathers that make a curved upward style with one golden feather at the front oh her head. Instead of clothes, the Tooth Fairy's entire body seems to be covered in mini feathers the same color as the ones on her head. Around her wrists and ankles, there seem to be golden lines that appear to look like golden braclets and anklets, as well as gold feathers hanging down on both sides of her head, giving the appeareance of earrings. She also had long drapery feathers that start at her waist line and end at her knees, giving the appeareance of a skirt or dress. Maddie admired how lovely the Tooth Fairy looked in real life. She was more beautiful than how she imagined her as a kid.

Even the Sandman was different from her childhood image. He was a short and squat individual, garbed in an outfit that looked like a night robe made out of glittery golden sand. His hair, vaguely clownish, was golden and short, styled in five points and glittered like the golden sand. He also had tiny feet and golden brown eyes. Maddie liked how short the Sandman was and how adorable he looked. She wanted to hug him like a teddy bear. All in all, she loved how all of the guardians looked in real life and she began to prefer the real them over her childhood image.

"Everybody, meet Maddie Hathaway." North introduced the other to her "Maddie, meet the guardians. E. Aster Bunnymund or the Easter Bunny, Toothiana also known as the Tooth Fairy and Sanderson Mansnoozie, better known as the Sandman or Sandy for short."

The Tooth Fairy flew up to Maddie with an estatic expression. Just like a hummingbird, her wings beated really fast. They seem to beat eighty times per seconde.

"Hello Maddie! I'm SO happy to meet you in person!" The Tooth fairy said, feeling extremely excited while making a wide smile "I can't believe I'm actually in the presence of a real life teenage believer!"

"I'm happy to meet you in person myself." Maddie said with a small smile. She felt a little bit freaked out by Tooth's extreme excitment at first, but she was able to brush it off for she herself felt too excited to stay feeling creeped out for she was in the presence of the Tooth Fairy "You look more beautiful in real life."

"Thank you!" Tooth said, smiling and giggling with flattery.

All of a sudden, some tiny little fairies swarmed around, feeling just as excited as Tooth was. They all looked like miniature versions of Tooth with green, blue, greenish-blue and golden feathers, cute violet eyes and the nose of a hummingbird. Maddie smiled at them. She thought they looked so adorable, even the chirping sounds they make sounded cute. They all acted excited around Maddie. One of them lifted up a strand of her hair, wanting to see what it felt like. Another rubed the top of its head under her chin like a cat, causing Maddie to laugh because it was adorable and it tickled.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Girls! Pull yourselves togeather! Let's not invade the girl's personal space." Tooth told them. At that moment, all of the little fairies returned to Tooth's side while Maddie held one that was sitting in the palm of her hands and looked at it affectionatly. "These are my fairies! They help me collect the teeth!"

"Awwwww! They are all so cute!" Maddie in a loveable tone of voice, causing the little fairy in her hand to smile and fly back to the others, feeling flattered. She then knelt down to the Sandman in order to greet him.

"Hello Sandman! It's very nice to meet you!"

The Sandman smiled and waved at her. Golden sand materalized above his head, forming into the shape of a flower. Maddie didn't understand what it meant so she felt confused, the fact that the Sandman is silent adding to it.

"You don't talk much do you?" She said smiling and giggling nervously.

"Sandy doesn't talk, he uses his dream sand to communicate, so don't take it personally." Jack explained to her "He says he thinks you're pretty."

"Oh! thank you!" Maddie said to the Sandman with a smile and understanding right away. She then went up to the Easter Bunny who never stopped staring at her with shocked jaw dropped expression.

"And I know who you are!" Maddie told him "You're the Easter Bunny!"

"Crikey! You... you really do exist!" The Easter Bunny said with extreme surprise. He had an australian accent, which made him seem like an australlian ranger.

"Yea, Jack told me you didn't believe him when he told you about me."

"That's right Bunny! NOW do you believe me?" Jack said with a grin. Bunny noded his head in response, never taking his eyes off of Maddie. "And you know what that means right?"

"Oh, Bugger!" Bunny said in frusturation as if he just remembered something he didn't want to remember.

"Bunny and I made a bet with each other!" Jack explained to Maddie while smiling "I would be allowed to use my winter magic in his place whenever I wanted for the next six months if I could prove that you still believe in us."

Maddie giggled with amusement before she turned her attention back to Bunny. He was pouting and looking at the floor, looking real annoyed. Guess this will teach him to think twice before calling someone a liar and making a bet with Jack Frost.

 **Finally done with this chapter, this took me longer to write than any of the other ones. I've figured that Maddie would at first feel excited about flying but then get scared once she's up in the air for it would be scarier than how she imagined it would be. And boy was Bunny surprised when he first saw Maddie and discovered that Jack was telling the truth!**

 **Honestly I had so much fun writing this chapter, next one coming soon.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8**

 **June 13th, 2015 4:30 p.m.**

Maddie, Jack and North rode in an elevator bearing the resemblance of a christmas ornament. Wanting to impress the first discovered Eternal Believer and fill her with wonder, North was giving Maddie a tour of the fortress. Maddie guessed that this was the first time the North Pole has ever had a human guest, espcially when they reached what seemed to be the factory floor, where the toys were made.

The factory floor was bustling with activity. There were lots of yetis just like the one she encountered at the front door, lots of them in different colors such as reddish brown, bluish gray, cream, coffee, light gray, white and light brown. All of the Yetis were building toys and moving wraped presents. Then one by one, they all looked up and stared at the unusual guest.

As Maddie walk past the surprised stares the yetis made at her, she heard the sound of bells jingling in front of her and looked down to see three tiny elves looking up at her with wide curious eyes as if they were newborn babies catching their first glimpse at the world.

The elves were small creatures about half the size of Maddie's arm with wide round eyes, an upturned nose and rosy cheeks. Each of them wore a large hat with a point - which had a small jingle bell at the top - covering their body all the way down to the beginning of their legs, each in a different shade of red, accomponied by a belt, each in a different design. Their large hats had a large open hole at the front for their faces and a small hole on each side for the elves pointy ears to stick out. Each of the elves wore a different colored long sleeved shirt underneath their outfit and different colored toeless striped stockings.

Maddie gave the little elves a warm, gentle smile. They looked so sweet and adorable. She got a her knees in order to be closer to their level so she could greet them.

"Hello." she softly said to them. The little elves each made a big smile while one of them tried to impress Maddie with a silly little dance, the bell on his hat jingling with every one of his movements. Maddie giggled with amusement at the elf's goofy little dance. The elf made a fast spin and lost his balance, causing him to fall and land into Maddie's lap.

"It's very nice to meet you too!" She happily told the elf as he gave her a sheepish grin. She helped the little elf back on his feet and quickly caught up to Jack and North. As they walked through the factory, Maddie noticed the only the yetis were making the toys while the elves were playing with the finished ones, making her confused.

"I thought the elves made the toys." Maddie told North.

"We just let them believe that." North whispered to her. So the toys are actually made by yetis instead of elves, somehow the idea of the yetis making the toys instead of the elves kind of appealed to her. It was different than what she had known all her childhood and she liked things that are different from what she knows. They walked pass a coffee colored yeti who was at a work table, finishing sewing up a little green dress and putting it on a baby doll that had little blonde pigtails and wide blue eyes.

"That won't do! Dress it in purple!" North told the yeti. The yeti cried out what sounded like "What the..." and looked at all of the alread finished baby dolls all dressed in green. He groaned in dismay and banged his head agaist the work table. This made Maddie feel sorry for the yeti. He probably spent hours working on those dolls, only to discover that he had to start over.

Maddie, Jack and North continued on through the factory until they reached a room at the other end. Inside, the room had shelves filled with toys, bookshelves containing what seems to be hundreds of books, prototypes of toys sculpted out of ice and a large work table with lots of ice sculpting tools. The walls were made of thick, solid ice and had a large window that overlooked all of the exterior of the North Pole and let in bright and shiny sunlight that lit up the whole room.

"Fruitcake?" North asked Maddie handing her a plate of fruitcake.

"No, thank you." Maddie politly responded, causing North to toss the dessert aside. "Everyones reaction to meeting me... is it because I'm the first human to vist the North Pole?"

"Oh! Better than that!" Jack responded to her "You're the first Eternal believer to be discovered!"

"Eternal Believer?"

"Children who believe in the guardians are known as Believer." North explained to her "Eternal Believers are what we call teenagers, adults and elderly people who still believe in the guardians even though they past childhood. For years, they were assumed to only exist in stories... until today."

"You mean... I'm not the only teenger who still believes?" Maddie asked. She was intrigued by what she had just heard. It would make her feel happy to know that she wasn't the only one.

"Yes, you are proof that Eternal Believers do exist." North answered "Eternal Believers are also different from child Believers because the power in an Eternal Believers belief is not as strong as a child's belief, but it is powerful enought to keep the guardians from completely dissapearing."

"A child's belief in a guardian is what makes the guardian powerful." Jack further explained "The more children who believe in a guardian, the more powerful they become. Less believers drain their power and make them weak."

"Also Eternal Believers don't appear as lights on the globe." North continued on.

"Lights?" Maddie said.

"The huge globe in the room where you meet the other guardians." Jack explained "It has lights all over the continents, and each light represents a child who believes in the guardians."

"And good or bad, Naughty or nice... we protect them." North further explained.

"I understand why you are known as the guardians." Maddie told them feeling fasinated "Not only do you bring joy to children, but you also protect them from threats such as the Boogeyman. Children are my life, and I admire anyone who loves and protects children."

"Yes, that's part of the reason Man in Moon choose us to be guardians." North tells her. He loved the fact that this young girl had a strong love for children.

"Man in Moon?" Maddie asked confused yet again.

"The Man in the Moon is the very first guardian." Jack told her "He protects the hopes, dreams and wishes of all the children in the world by creating and choosing guardians that protect a special parts of childhood. He lives on the moon, hence his name."

"The Man in the Moon..." Maddie whispered with amazement.

"Yes, he choose us as guardians not only because we are willing to protect and bring joy to children, but also because he can see something special within us, a center." North further informed her. He went over to one of the shelves, took down a Russian nesting doll and handed it to the girl. Maddie looked at the russian nesting doll and saw that it was painted to look like North holding two scimitars, one in each hand, looking Intimidating.

"On the outside, you see me as very big, very intimidating, no?" North told her "But if you get to know me a little..."

As he told her this, he gestured her to go ahead and open the doll in half. Curious, Maddie did just that and inside was another carved North doll. This one was a little bit smaller than the first and looked more happy and cheerful with rosey red cheeks, holding a cup of cocco. It took her a few seconds to figure out what this one meant.

"Jolly right?"

"Ah, but not just jolly..." North said gesturing her to open the doll in half again. Maddie opened it to reveal another smaller North doll, this one with the bottom half of his face mysteriously hidden by a red coat like the famouse fictional vampire Count Dracula.

"I am also mysterious.." North continued. Maddie once again opened the doll and the fourth one looked like North screaming in anger and rage.

"Fearless..." the fifth one was North holding a deer in his arms, while smiling as a tear came out of one of his eyes.

"And caring. And at my center..." North continued. Maddie opens the doll up one last time to reveal the last and smallest of the nesting dolls. It was the size of a jelly bean, but instead of looking like North, the doll looked like a tiny baby with big blue eyes wraped in a red blanket. The last little doll stumped Maddie, she had no idea what it meant at all.

"I... don't really get it." Maddie told him.

"Notice the big blue eyes on the doll?" North asked her to which Maddie nodded in response "Those big eyes symbolize wonder. That is my center, It is what I was born with. Eyes that have always seen the wonder in everything. Eyes that see light in the trees, and magic in the air! This wonder is what I put into the world, and what I protect in children. It is what makes me a guardian."

"He told the exact same thing to me." Jack told Maddie while smiling.

"Ah center!" Maddie said grasping what she was told. The whole thing was now completly made sense for the girl. She believed that North, Jack and the other guardians were lucky to have something special inside them, while she didn't. "I wish I had a center."

Jack and North looked at the girl with pity. They were wondering how someone like Maddie feel... well not so special.

"Hey, of course you do. Everyone in the universe does!" Jack told her with encouragement "You just need to figure out what it is. Trust me, I didn't know what my center was at first either. It took me a while to finally figure out what it was... Fun."

"Thanks." Maddie said, smiling at Jack and his kind words.

"Hey, would you like to see the sleigh?" North asked her.

"Sure!" Maddie answered enthusiastically.

The trio went down deeper into the workshop and into an stables made out of solid ice. The stables had six stalls also made of solid ice with a wooden door for entry, each containing a reindeer. Each ice stall had the name of the reindeer it contained carved into the door in gold letters. The names of the reindeer were different from the names she knew as a child. Their names were Grigori, Sasha, Feliks, Isaak, Viktor and Pavel. Maddie stopped to greet the one named Pavel.

"Hello Pavel." She said to him. She slowly raised her right hand towards his head in order to pet him, trying to be as gentle as possible, not wanting to frighten the reindeer. She petted the reindeer's thick fur which felt surprisingly extemely warm.

"Amazing isn't he." North told her.

"Yea!" Maddie agreed with a smile "He's so warm... I didn't think he'd be so warm."

Pavel shook his head like a horse while heavily snorting, causing Maddie to back away from him in alarm, thinking she may have unintentionally done something to upset the reindeer.

"It's all right, he's just trying to get to know you." North assured her before turning toward Pavel "Vy prosto pytayetes' poznakomit'sya s ney , pravil'no Pavla?"

Pavel nodded his head as if responding to what North was telling him. Maddie, Jack and North carried on until they came to the end of the stables. Maddie's eyes went wide with amazement at the first sight of sleigh as she silently gasp in wonder. The sleigh was huge, designed to look like a cross between a snowmobile and an F-14 jet fighter. At the dashboard, there was a miniature version of the same globe she saw earlier.

"Wow." Maddie said in a whisper as she gazed upon the magnificent sleigh.

"Everyone loves the sleigh." North pointed out.

Maddie was so focused gazing at the sleigh that the sound of the chiming of the clock in the stables startled her. She looked at the clock and her eyes now went wide with panic when she saw the time.

"Five-o-clock? Oh no! I'm suppose to be back by six! I'm not gonna make it back in time!" Maddie cried out, considering it took her and Jack three hours to get to the North Pole by flying.

"Hey not to worry." North told her "I have something that will get you back in no time."

He went over to the sleigh and took out a snowglobe, which confused Maddie. She wondered how a snowglobe is going to get her back to Burgess in time.

"Burgess, Pennsylvania." North said as he shook the snow globe. The snow swirled around inside the globe and a picture of Burgess appeared inside, amazing the girl. North then threw the globe at the ground, causing it to shatter and a magic portal appeared, amazing Maddie even further. She looked at both Jack and North wanting to make know if they were sure about it. Jack gestured her to go right ahead and after a few seconds, she went right through and back into Burgess in no time at all.

 **Finally finished, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Since the reindeers weren't named in the movie, I decided to give them names. I gave them all russian names with a specific meaning.**

 **Grigori means watchful like how the guardians watch over the children of the world.**

 **Sasha means defender of mankind like how the guardians protect the children of the world.**

 **Feliks means happiness.**

 **Isaak means laughter.**

 **Viktor means conquerer.**

 **And Pavel means small as in a small child.**

 **Review if you think I need to improve on something. The next chapter will be a father's day theme and it might be a little said to readers who have a father that's dead or has died recently.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 9**

 **June 21st, 2015 2:00 p.m.**

It was Father's Day today and Maddie, Karen, Jamie and Sophie went over to Slate Hill Cemetery to pay a visit to the grave of Jamie and Sophie's father. Five days ago, Maddie found the perfect gift to send to her father in a sports shop near town. It was the _Medal Play 300_ , a valuable golf set that is said to only have three in existence. Golf was one of her father's favorite hobbies and he always had the desire to find one of these rare golf sets, claiming that he would be the most talked about man on the course with one. Maddie was fortunate enough to have come across it while taking a look around inside the shop. It cost a bit much, but she knew that he would adore this gift from her.

Maddie parked her SUV next to a sidewalk that was in front of a cast iron gate leading into the cemetery with the words Slate Hill Cemetery forged into the gate's arch. After helping Sophie out of her car seat and locking the car and turning on the alarm system, the party made their way through the cemetery until they found the grave of Mike Bennett, Jamie and Sophie's deceased father and Karen's late husband.

 **Michael L. Bennett**

 **1975 - 2012**

"Hi Dad, Happy Father's Day." Jamie said to his father's grave with a depressed expression on his face "I wish you were here with us."

Everybody placed a gift in front of Mike's headstone. Jamie gave the grave a drawing of him and his dad, placing a rock on top of it so it would'nt be blown away. Karen presented a home made card that contained a poem Mike recited to her on their wedding day. Sophie provided a small teddy bear that wore a shirt that says "Worlds Best Daddy" and Maddie gave the grave a bouquet of yellow roses.

They all looked at the grave, remembering that heartbreaking day a few years ago. In happened in late autumn, Karen was six months pregnant with Sophie and Jamie was a couple months away from turning six. Jamie had been woken up in the middle of the night by his mother. She told him that his father had been in a car accident. He was driving home late from work and got hit by a drunk driver and was now in the hospital. Jamie remembered feeling paralized from the shock he felt when he heard the news.

When they got to the hospital, they were immediately informed by the doctor that his father didn't make it and that he was gone. Right then and there, Jamie's whole world shattered to pieces. He and his father were extremely close and he was devastated by the news of his death. He didn't want to believe that his dad was gone, it meant that he would never see him or hear his voice ever again. He would also never get to do any of those father son activities with him or recieve anymore of his hugs. It felt like somebody or something punched a hole in his chest, a wound that would take his whole life to completely heal. A part of his life had been taken from him that day.

As all those sad thoughts ran through his head, tears started rolling down Jamie's face and he began to cry. Maddie looked at him with condolence and wraped her arms around the little boy in order to comfort him. Jamie accepted her embrace by wrapping his arms around her and burying his face into her chest, sobbing into it.

Seeing Jamie cry made Maddie start to cry as well. She had known Mike her whole life. She wasn't close to Mike but he was part of her life and she cared about him and it horrified her when she learned of his death from her parents. She didn't want it to be true, she wanted the whole thing to be a bad dream and that she would wake up in her own bedroom with Ike asleep at the foot of her bed and be relieved to know Mike was still alive in the waking world. She wanted to be woken up by either her alarm clock or by Ike licking her face. Yet the sad news was real and she was wide awake, which dissapointed her.

Her parents had the school give her a few days off so she could go to Burgess with them to attend the funeral, where she cried a lot. Maddie despied whoever the drunk driver was that killed Mike and was glad to hear that he was in jail paying for his crime. This was one of the reasons why Maddie never ever wants to drink alchole, beer or wine even when she turns twenty-one. She didn't want to get drunk and either end up doing something stupid, be taken advantage of or worse, hurt people, especially the ones she loves.

Karen joined in on the grief fest by wrapping Jamie, Sophie and Maddie all in a condolencing group hug and began to cry too. She had known her husband ever since they were children themselves and were best friends that fell in love with one another during their high school years. She remembered the night she got the phone call telling her Mike had been in a car crash and was in the hospital. She also remembered collapsing to the floor, bursting into tears and wailing in extreme sorrow the moment she was told that Mike didn't make it. She didn't just lose her husband that night, she also lost her best friend. He also never get the chance to witness the birth of their seconde child, which made the whole thing even more sad.

Out of everyone in the group, Sophie was the only one who didn't cry, for Mike died before she was even born, therefore the little girl never knew her father. She was also just a two-year-old toddler and therefore too young to understand why everyone was crying, being more confused than mournful.

After what seemed like an eternity of hugging and crying, the group said goodbye to Mike and started to make their way back to the car. As they were leaving, another gravestone caught Maddie's eye, getting her curiosity going. She went over to the gravestone to get a closer look and read the name on it.

 _ **In loving memories of**_

 _ **Jackson Thomas Overland**_

 _ **Born November 18th, 1686**_

 _ **Died January 21st, 1705**_

 _ **At the age of 18**_

After reading the gravestone, Maddie followed the others back to her SUV with a series of questions running through her mind. As she drove along the road, she wondered if Jackson Thomas Overland was who Jack was before he became Jack Frost and if that was his grave? If it was, then she thinks that it's really sad that his life ended at a very young age. What happened to cause him to lose his life at eightteen years? Do you have to die before becoming a guardian? Did all the other guardians die before they were choosen? Of course it might be just a coincidence. She could be wrong, the grave she just saw might be the grave of a different boy with the same name as Jack's.

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I apologize if this chapter made anyone cry. Since Jamie and Sophie's father wasn't seen or mentioned in the movie, either he was probably dead or he and Mrs. Bennett were divorced. I decided to go with the theory that he died before the events of Rise of the Guardians. I also thought of what Jack's middle name might have been when he was human.**

 **Reviews would be very much apprieciated, the next chapter will take me a while to write because I'll be gone on vacation for five days next week.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 10**

 **June 25th, 2015 8:00 p.m.**

"...And Who ordered the Classic 56?" Maddie asked a group of five frat boys that were seated in one of the red booths. She was working at her summer afternoon job at Cafe 56, A resturant located on the outskirts of Burgess, named after the year of its establishment which was in 1956.

"That would be me!" A boy in the group wearing a baseball cap on his head backwards said to her.

"Here you are." Maddie said to the boy as she handed him a plate holding a large, mouthwatering burger with tasty fries on the side. She then turned to another boy with a shaved head hairstyle and was slightly overweight "And you ordered The Triple Sliders with onion rings on the side, right?"

"That's right!" The other boy said to Maddie as she handed him a plate holding three small slider burgers with onion rings.

"All right, I'll be back in twenty minutes with your bill."

"Wait Hot Stuff!" A boy with a rap industry beard who was the leader of the group said to Maddie, making her stop in her track "At the end of your shift, you should grab a drink and hang with us later."

"Uh... Thanks, but no thanks" Maddie politely answered him, feeling uncomfortable by the way the guy was hitting on her.

"Why not? You too good for us or something?" Another boy with chin length brown hair and stubble on his face said, laughing as if Maddie's response was a joke.

"No! No! I don't mean it like that! I just have to be home by a certain time." Maddie quickly responded with uneasiness "Besides, I don't drink."

"Okay, whatever you say Babe." The leader of the boys told her with a smirk.

Maddie felt relieved to be out of that uncomfortable situation. But as soon as she turned her back and was about to walk away, one of the boys grabbed her rear end, causing her to flinch and look back at the boys with alarm. The boys began to eat their food, acting like they didn't do anything. Maddie decided to walk away and pretend nothing happened, feeling too afraid to call out on the boys for grabbing her behind, not wanting to cause trouble or make things worse.

"Sarah! Come up here and show everyone what you got!" Wade Malcom called out into a microphone on the stage where the resturants live band stood. Sarah Palmer, a college age girl with sleek and smooth straight copper colored hair and one of Maddie's co-workers went up on stage and began to sing "Candyman" by Chirstina Aguilera with the live band playing the music.

Cafe 56 was populare in Burgess because not only do they have the best customer service and the most scrumptious burgers anyone has ever tasted, but also every half an hour, one of the waitresses would go up on stage and entertain the customers by singing a song with the band. Technically if you wanted to work as a waitress in Cafe 56, not only do you have to be good at serving tables, but you also have to have a passion for singing.

Maddie has gone up on stage and sung dozens of times before. Even though she had an amazing singing voice that sounded as loud and clear and lovely as Lea Michele's, she wasn't considered the best singer in the house. Instead, Sarah Palmer held the title for best singer in the house, having a voice that sounded better than Maddie's. Sarah could sing every high and low note loud, clear and beautiful without cracking her voice, which gives her a standing ovation everytime she went up on stage to perform a song. Hearing Sarah sing would make Maddie feel insecure about her own singing voice, believing she will never be as good as Sarah. She didn't feel any hatred towards Sarah, but she was envious of her co-worker.

"Maddie, I need you to come to my office." Wade told Maddie. Wade Malcom was Maddie's employer and the current owner of the resturant, having inherited it from his father, who founded the place back in the mid fifties. Wade was a middle aged heavy set man with thick brown hair, a walrus mustache and brown eyes. Just like his father, Wade was extremely professional at managing the place and was very compassionate towards his employees, always putting their well beings before his own.

As Maddie entered his office and sat in one of the two chairs in front of his desk, she began to feel worried, thinking that she might be in trouble or something. But as Wade sat down behind his desk, Maddie noticed that he look more concerned than dissaproved.

"Am I in trouble?" Maddie asked, still feeling worried.

"No, I called you here because I'm worried about your safety." Wade answered her, making Maddie feel agitated, knowing what he meant by that "The boys who you just served, I saw what they did to you, and I don't accept customers sexually harrassing my employees or vise virsa or even between co-workers or supervisers. So for your own safty, I'm gonna have you do janitorial duty for the rest of your shift - Kelly will give the boys their bill - and I'll give those boys a stern warning that-"

"No! No!" Maddie quickly said with panic, interupting Wade.

"Yes Maddie, I have to!" Wade told her in a serious tone.

"No Wade please don't! That will only make them mad!"

"Maddie their college boys and you're under eightteen! What they did to you is unacceptable and they need to be taught that it's never okay to treat girls like that, especially underage girls like yourself. I wouldn't be a good boss if I let get away with situations like this. If I don't confront them about this, I'm letting them think it's okay... and they'll do it to other girls. Now do you really want other girls to be put at risk just because you're afraid of having me confront those boys about their behavior?"

Maddie opened her mouth to respond, but the last thing that Wade told her made her stop. She was afraid of retailiation, yet she didn't want other girls to experience what she just experienced. She would feel blameworthy if she put other girls at risk by not letting Wade tell those boys that what they did was not okay.

Having no other choice, Maddie reluctantly agreed with Wade before she was given permission to go back to work. As she wiped off the tables and scraped the wads of chewing gum out from under them, she eavesdroped on the talk Wade had with the boys, who were acting innocent that later turned into becoming defensive.

"What are you talking about? We didn't do anything." one of the boys said trying to act as innocent as possible.

"I don't know what she told you, but whatever she told you, it's a lie." The leader of the group said.

"She did not tell me anything! I saw you boys harassing her!" Wade told them sternly "Now if I see you boys harass any of my employees like that again, I will have to ask you boys to leave! Do I make myself clear?"

The boys all agreed while rolling their eyes at Wade, feeling ticked off by the resturant's owner comfronting them about what they think is just them trying to have a little fun. As Wade walked away, the boys gave Maddie a dirty look that told her that in their heads, they were calling her a snitching whore.

Seeing the dirty look the boys were giving her, Maddie looked away from the boys and carried on with her job, trying to forget what had just happened and pretend the boys weren't there. She was relieved when she looked back ten minutes later and they were gone. But then she started to worry that she might have to clean one of the restrooms, believing that they might be in there hiding in the stalls, waiting for her in order to attack her.

The hour went by slowly with Maddie feeling edgy, fearing she would have to clean one of the restrooms, where she might get attack with the locked door keeping her in as she was assualted. She was relieved when her shift finally ended and she punched out and said goodbye to Wade. She was becoming more relaxed as she walked out into the parking lot towards her SUV, believing that the last hour of her shift went by smoothly after all.

But unfortunatly, her feelings of reassurance was cut short. Before Maddie could even press the unlock button on her car keys, she gasped in alarm and accidently dropped them when she saw the reflection of the frat boys in the window of her car. Maddie quickly spun around to face them, feeling scared as the boys backed her up against her car, looking at her in a menacing way. She quickly bent down to pick up her car keys so she can press the panic button in order to catch the attention of anyone nearby, maybe even Wade. But one of the boys swiftly kicked the keys under the car and out of her reach, chuckling in a taunting way at the girl's terrorfied reaction to it.

"So you like to talk don't you?" The leader said to her while smiling in a threatening way "You like to be such a tease, whores like you always do."

Feeling absoultely terrorfied, Maddie could guess what was probably going to happen. She thought of herself as stupid for not thinking of the possibility of getting assaulted on the way to her car. Seeing an opening, she quickly ran towards it in order to escape but the boys quickly blocked it off, surrounding her and giving her no way of escaping.

"Whoa, whoa, where are do you think you're running to slut? The fun's just beginning!" said the boy with the baseball cap on his head as he reached out and began to tug at the buttons on her red waitress uniform.

"Don't touch me!" Maddie said to the boy as she shoved his hands away. The boy made another attemp to unbutton her uniform and this time Maddie smacked the boy across the face, telling the boy once again not to touch her.

Wanting to show the boys how it's done, the leader of the frat boys grabbed Maddie by the wrist and pinned her on top of the hood of her car. Maddie screamed in terror as the boy rubbed his clothed core up against her, struggling to get out of the boy's grasp but to no avail because of the boy being heavier than her. Her fear was starting to become mixed with the feeling of humiliation. She didn't want to lose her virginity to these bastards who were disrespecting her wishes and invading her personal space.

Just when the boy was about to lean down and give Maddie an unwanted kiss on the mouth, out of the blue the boy was hit in the face by a snowball, causing him to immediately stumble backwards a few feet away from Maddie. The boy brushed the snow off his face, wondering what just happened. It took him a moments to finally realize that what hit him in the face was a snowball, which both shocked and confused him and his buddies.

"What the fuck!?" The leader said in shock.

"Where the hell did a snowball come from?... and in the middle of summer?" The overweight shaved head boy said also feeling shocked.

Maddie turned around and saw Jack standing a few feet behind her, giving the boys a displeased look. The boys obviously couldn't see Jack since they don't believe in him, making them wonder who threw the snowball. As the boys stood around confused and chilled to the bones, Jack flew past Maddie, standing a few feet in front of the airheads. He then pointed his staff at the ground near their feet and blasted ice there, making the boys stumble back away from it, becoming even more confused and scared.

"Jesus Christ!" the boy with chin length brown hair exclaimed when he and the others saw the ice on the ground. Jack blasted ice near their feet again and then two more times before the boys became so scared and confused that they decided to get the hell out of there.

"What the fuck is going on?!" the leader exclaimed.

"I don't know man! But I'm getting the hell out of here!" The boy with the baseball cap said as he began to run away with the others immediatly following pursuit. As soon as the boys were far away, Jack turned towards Maddie who was trembling from the assault.

"Are you ok Maddie?" Jack asked her feeling concerned about her.

"Yea, thanks Jack." Maddie said as she began to feel more at ease "I'm glad you showed up before those boys did... whatever they were going to do."

"Well personally, I have no patience for guys who treat girls like that." Jack told her.

"Well thanks again for saving me." Maddie thanked him again giving him an appriciative smile "It seem to me I have Jack Frost as a stalker!"

"I was just in the neighborhood when I spotted you." Jack told her smiling back. He then kneeled down next to Maddie's car and used his staff to get her car keys out from underneath. He then picked them up and handed them to her.

"Thanks." Maddie said as she took the keys. She then began to remembered something... something she wanted to ask Jack the next time she saw him "Would it be alright if you accompanied me back to the Bennett's? There's something I want to talk to you about."

"Sure." Jack accepted with a smile. Maddie unlocked the car and with Jack sitting in shotgun, they drove away from the resturant.

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I apologize for not warnig anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault, I'm terribly sorry for causing frightening flashbacks or such. I got the idea of writing this chapter from the Twilight saga.**

 **Sexual assualt is not about sex, it's about power and control. The boys didn't try to assault Maddie because she was attractive, they wanted to have a bit of fun by making her feel vunerable and humiliated.**

 **The next chapter will be about Jack telling Maddie his background story. Please review, next chapter coming soon.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 11**

 **June 25th, 2015 9:15 p.m.**

"There's something I want to ask you about Jack." Maddie timidly said to him as she drove along the road that bordered a forest "But I'm afraid you might think I'm trying to pry into your personal life."

"Hey whatever it is you want to know, you can ask me." Jack said to her with empathy, knowing that the girl was too shy to ask what she wanted to ask him "After all, we are friends aren't we?"

Maddie glance at Jack and gave him a sweet smile. Having Jack tell her that he believes they are friends made her feel happy and at ease. She considered Jack a friend as well because not only is he fun and amusing, but she also felt safe and comfortable around him.

"Did you have a previous life before you became Jack Frost?" Maddie asked him.

"As a matter of fact, I did." Jack answered her "Before becoming a winter spirit, I use to be human just like you."

"I'd like to hear more about your human life." Maddie told him, smiling while watching the road. She was fasinated by the fact that Jack use to be human just like her and was eagered to hear what his human life was like. Jack approved of her request and began to tell his story.

"Three hundred years ago, I grew up here in Burgess, back when it was just a small colonial villiage." Jack began "I had a family, A mother named Clara and a little sister named Emma."

"What about your dad?" Maddie asked.

"He died from yellow fever when Emma was only three-years-old." Jack answered after a brief hesitation of sadness.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Maddie said, feeling regretful for even asking him that.

"It's okay." Jack told her before continuing on with his tale "Despite my father's death, my life was joyful and fulfilling. Even during my human life I was mischievous. I loved having fun and playing tricks on my friends and family, espicially Emma."

"I bet your sister was a sweet little girl." Maddie told him, smiling at the fact that Jack had a little sister.

"Oh she was!" Jack responded smiling back "Not only that, but she was also playful, filled with joy and had a really good sense of humor. She was the only person who would laugh everytime I played a tricks instead of getting annoyed and angry like other people I knew. Emma and I were very close. I loved her with all my heart. I even sacrificed my own life just to save her."

"What happened?" Maddie asked him. She had become so intrigued by Jack telling her about his little sister -considering that she loved children- she had completly forgotten why she asked Jack about his human life.

"It was winter. I was eightteen and she was eight." Jack continued "We were ice skating out on the same pond where I meet you. Emma accidentally went onto the part of the frozen pond where the ice was thinnest. She stood there frozen with fear as the ice slowly cracked beneath her feet. I was scared as well. I was more afraid of loosing her than loosing my own life. But I kept myself calm for her sake. I tried to ease her by telling her that she wasn't going to fall in, that we were going to have fun instead."

When she stopped at a red light, Maddie looked at Jack, confused by what he just told her. Seeing her confused look Jack further explained.

"Emma and I pretended that we were actually playing Hopscotch. Carefully, I found the a safe spot where the ice was thick and using my staff I pulled her away from the cracking ice and tossed her to safety, stumbling onto the cracking ice myself in the process. Emma and I shared a brief glance of happiness towards each other before I fell through into the freezing water. I saw the moon as I drown, and Emma was the last thing I though of before I died."

"I'm so sorry." Maddie told Jack, feeling sorry for him because he had to die like that. Not only did she feel sorry for Jack, but she also felt sorry for Emma as well. She can just imagine how much sorrow the little girl felt when she lost her brother unexpectedly. Yet the fact that Jack sacrificed himself to save a child made her like him even more. She also knew she would have done the same thing for Jamie, Sophie, one of Jamie's friends or even I child she didn't know.

"Hey don't be. I'm more happy and greatful knowing she survied than sad that I lost my life." Jack told her while smiling "The Man in the Moon saw how I saved Emma and for that, he turned me into the winter spirit I am today. Sadly when I was reborn as Jack Frost, I lost all of my memories that I had of my previous life. Since no humans could see or hear me, due to the fact that no one believed in me, I live in isolation for three hundred years. Execpt for the other guardians, I didn't have anyone."

After pulling into the driveway, Maddie looked at Jack with pity. She could just imagine how lonely he felt all those years, having no one for a friend. Having no one to talk to, no one to spend time with, laugh with, hug or even love. Just thinking about his how sad and lonely the boy felt all those years made a lump of sorrow form in her throat and tears started to welling up in her eyes. She wished she had started believing in Jack a long time ago, that way she would have given him a friend who would love him.

Maddie also felt sad for Jack when she heard that he lost his memories of previous life, including the memories of his sweet beloved little sister. Even though becoming a guardian meant protecting and bringing joy to children, Maddie didn't ever want to become a guardian if it meant loosing the memories of the ones she loves. She would rather die than be reborn and never remember Jamie, Sophie, Jamie's friends, Karen, Ike, her mother and father or anyone she loves.

"Wait a minute." Maddie said, as a fact that made her confused suddenly crossed her mind "If you lost all your memories when you became Jack Frost, then how did you know about your human life?"

"There's a reason why the Tooth Fairy collects teeth." Jack began to explain "They contain the greatest memories of childhood. There's a special box made to hold the teeth of one child, every child in the world has a box made just for their teeth, including me and you. During the battle against Pitch two months ago, I recieved my own tooth box and it gave me a flashback of my human life. It helped me figure out why the Man in the Moon chose me to be guardian."

As Maddie and Jack exited the car and Jack walked Maddie up to the front door after locking her car, Maddie felt fasinated by the idea of teeth containing the greatest memories of childhood, bringing a smile to her face. It made her wish she could get a hold of the box that contained her own teeth so she could see her the happiest memoiries of her childhood.

"What about the other guardians? Did they ever loose the memories of their previous life before being choosen?" She asked.

"No, I was the only one to have died and loose my memories before being chosen by the Man in the Moon." Jack answered "We were all someone before we were chosen. The others could probably tell you their story if you ask."

"I might keep that in mind." Maddie told him "So I'll see you around?"

"Yea," Jack responded. But before he could take off, Maddie stopped him because of a question that suddenly came to her.

"Do you ever miss your sister?"

"As a matter of fact... yes. Sometimes I do miss her."

"I wish I could meet her. Do you think she would have liked me?"

"You know, I believe she would have loved you!"

"Well, goodnight." She told Jack with a smile.

"Goodnight." Jack said as he flew away on the wind into the night sky.

During the night, while sitting on the windowsill seat in her bedroom, drawing in her sketch book with color pencils, Maddie looked outside her window and smiled at the full moon that glowed in the nightsky. She told the Man in the Moon thank you. If it hadn't been for him, she never would have meet Jack Frost or any of the other guardians.

 **I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter. I decided to add a little more information to Jack's background story such as the wereabouts of his father and the names of his mother and sister. I decided to name Jack's sister Emma because she looked like an Emma. It isn't in the story but I also thought of what her full name would have been. I decided that her full name would have been Emma Charlotte Overland.**

 **I would love to hear what you guys think so far. Next chapter coming soon.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 12**

 **June 26th, 2015 3:45 a.m.**

As Maddie slept during the night, she recieved a visit from the Sandman who just came by to use his dreamsand to give the girl a pleasant dream. The dream she had was so beautiful and heavenly, she never wanted to be woken up from it. Every dream she had throughout her life was nothing compared to this one.

At the beginning of the dream, Maddie rode through the starry breath taking galaxy on a friendly gigantic moth with blue wings, a purple body and a soft wolly back that made it comfortable for her to ride on. She was wearing a beautiful weightless flowing ballgown that was golden and glittery like the Sandman's dreamsand with a voluminous skirt composed of more than a dozen fine layers of fabric which included crepeline silk, printed polyester and iridesent nylon along with a petticoat, a form fitting overlay bodice that glittered in any kind of light and off the shoulder strapes made of crepeline silk. Her soft, wavy black hair was done in a voluminous half up half down hairstyle decorated with golden ribbons. She wore gold silk heels, diamond jewelery and her face was painted with just the right amount of makeup, not too much and not too little with colors that looked good with her skin tone and blended to make it look like she's not wearing any makeup.

Maddie looked extremely beautiful, looking like the famouse fairytale character Cinderella. The major difference was that she was riding through the galaxy on a beautiful gigantic moth instead of on earth riding in a coach turned pumpkin with horse turned mice. As she soared through the sea of stars, she affectionately petted the darling moth on the head with it nuzzling its head agaisnt her stroking hand, appreciating the affectionate attention she was giving him.

They soon arrived to a beautiful white planet, supporting a majestic castle made of sparkling crystals. At the prepossessing white gates, Maddie was greeted by two kindhearted robots whose joints creaked with every movement. Each of the robots held one of Maddie's hands and helped her down gently and gracefully. Maddie affectionately nuzzled her forehead against the giant moth's forehead as a way of saying thank you for the ride before she followed the robots through the gates into the castle and to a marbled floored, courtyard ballroom where a magnificent gala was being held.

The women were all dressed exquisite, colorful ballgowns and the men wore formal military jackets with epaulettes on the shoulders, solid colored sashes across their chest and solid colored formal jodhpurs pants which are tucked into their knee high patent leather boots. There were also cute little green worms that glowed an iredescent green wearing sailor hats and teddy bear sized mice dressed in ship uniforms.

Everyone was dancing to lovely classical ballroom music being played by a band, having a tremendous time. When Maddie made her entrance, the music died down and everyone stopped to gaze upon the extremely beautiful looking girl with amazement. Maddie gracefully made her way to the marbled dance floor, her golden dress moving as if it was floating like a watercolor painting and the guest never taking their eyes off her.

In the middle of the dance floor, Maddie was greeted by a couple whom she believes is the Lord and Lady that owns this palace. The Lord had his dark hair gelled up, a friendly diamond shaped face with a strong jawline, brown eyes and a welcoming smile. He was wearing a dark green formal military jacket with epaulettes on the shoulders, formal jodhpurs pants the same color as his jacket, a red sash across the chest, black patent leather knee high boots and a red cape. Standing next to him was his beautiful wife, a woman with a lovely inverted triangle shaped face, roundesish-almond shaped brown eyes and long dark hair that was put up in a high bun. She was also wearing a lovely white high necked A-line dress with Juliette sleeves.

The Lord and Lady gave Maddie a warm welcoming smile before the Lord bowed his head and the Lady curtsied at her in a formal greeting. Wanting to be polite to the Lord and Lady, Maddie decided to greet them in return by curstsing at them. She bended her head slightly forward, as if giving a respectful nod, took the edges of the skirt of her gown with her thumb and first two fingers in each hand, with the pinkie extended, extending the skirt out to each side. She then placed her right foot inches behind her left, resting on the ball of her back foot while shifting her weight on the front and lowered herself down into a curtsy, bending her knees outward and keeping her back straight.

The Lord and Lady gave her an appreciative smile for being so kind and polite, before Maddie felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned and saw one of the male guest holding out his hand to her as a way of asking her to dance. Maddie accepted by making a small smile at him and took his hand. The music started back up again and everyone continued ballroom dancing.

Maddie was having a wonderful time dancing to every song. The skirt of her golden dress moving gracfully with every spin she took. Once every two songs, either another male guest, a robot, a glow worm or one of the little mice would ask if they could cut in so they could have a turn dancing with Maddie and her current dance partner would grant permission in order to let the other have their turn. Maddie must have been seen as the most beautiful girl at the gala as almost every male guest wanted a turn dancing with her. Maddie didn't mind however, she in fact pretty much enjoyed the attention.

While dancing with one of the glow worms, once again, another guest taped her dance partner on the shoulder. He was a tall, well built man who looks to be in his mid thirties with a long handsome face, dark slicked back spiky hair and brown eyes. He was also wearing golden plate armor with a red cape, making Maddie believe that this man must be a general. He politly asked the glow worm if he could cut in, and when the glow worm accepted, Maddie took the General's hand and started dancing with him.

They waltz, spining gracefully around the floor as the lovely classical music played. It felt both magical and fun, and looking up into the star filled sky while the General spun her around made Maddie feel tranquility and ectasy.

"My, my, she is such a beautiful girl." She heard the the General say. His voice now sounded different however. Instead of the warm soft british accent she heard before, he was now speaking in a british accent that sounded suductive, manipulitive and dark, making chills of fear run down her spine. She looked at the General but instead of brown eyes, he now had frightening looking silver-golden yellow eyes that resembled an eclispe, making her eyes widen with shock.

Suddenly the sound of growling was heard and when Maddie closed her eyes for a moment she opened them to find herself lying in bed back in her room at the Bennett's residence having woken up from her dream. Her beautiful golden gown was gone and she was once again the white camisole and dark grey boyshorts she wears when she goes to bed and her stylized hair was now back in the low ponytail she put in when she went to bed, the golden ribbons gone and the golden silk heels, leaving her barefooted and her face is now clean and makeup free.

Still hearing the growling, she looked at the foot of her bed and saw Ike showing his canine teeth and growling at a shadowy figure that was standing next to Maddie's bed. Maddie couldn't see the figure's face real well. The only part of the figure she could see were its eyes which were the same silver-golden yellow ones she saw in her dream. Seeing those eyes, Maddie jolted up with a horrified gasp and turned over to the left bedside table to turn on the bedside lamp, wanting to get a good look at the figure's face. But when she turned on the lamp and looked back at the other side of the bed, the figure was gone.

Even though the figure was gone, Maddie had the feeling that it was still in the room watching her. She slowly took Billy, the soft brown teddy bear she had since the age of two and holding him close to her with her right arm, she crawled over to Ike and wrapped her left arm around her dog holding him close as she trembled with fear from what she had just saw.

 **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. In case you all were wondering, Maddie was dreaming about the Golden Age which in the book series was a time where travel between stars and planets was common with the use of airships and the universe was governed by conestellations, groups of planets and stars led by benevolent families that ruled with imagination and fairness. Plus the Man in the Moon was born during this time.**

 **The Lord and Lady that Maddie curstied to was Tsar and Tsarina Lunar (The Man in the Moon's parents), the heads of the Lunanoff household and the general that Maddie was dancing with at the end of her dream was Kozmotis Pitchiner (Pitch Black before he became the nightmare king). And you can probably guess who the figure was that Maddie saw when she woke up. I also named Maddie's teddy bear after William Joyce, the author of the book series.**

 **If you wanna know what happened to the golden age and Tsar and Tsarina Lunar and Pitch's backstory about which includes how he became the nightmare king, read The Guardians of Childhood bookseries by William Joyce. The next chapter will have the Sandman tell Maddie his background story.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 13**

 **June 30th, 2015 9:40 p.m.**

"... So how's Dad?" Maddie asked he mother. She was on her cell phone talking to her mother, Abigail Hathaway, making her weekly phone call to her parents back in Washington D.C.. It was one of their rules for her if she wanted to stay in Burgess for the summer, that she had to call them once a week, every week so that they can make sure their daughter wasn't missing, kidnapped, dead or anything.

"Busy as usual." Abigail told her daughter casually "He's been practicing his patriotic speech for the Fourth of July non stop. I swear, he even does it in his sleep."

"He probably wants to make it more influencing than the speech he did last year." Maddie said, while chuckling. Practicing non stop for making a speech on national television was her father all right. Wanting to look leaderly to the citizens of the United States and be known as the greatest President in history. Maddie knew the reason why she somtetimes worries about whether or not people like her, she gets it from her father.

"Obviously!" Abigail agreed, chuckling back "What about you sweetie? Anything new happen to you this week?"

"I took Jamie, Sophie and Jamie's friends to Dutch Wonderland last Saturday. Jamie and his friends got to ride Kingdom Coaster for the very first time. Sophie was clearly too small to go on so I stayed behind to watch her."

"Did they enjoy the ride?" Abigail asked, interested.

"Jamie and the others told me they had a blast, but poor Monty didn't take it quite well." Maddie answered, feeling pity for the boy. While the other kids enjoyed the ride, it made poor Monty nauseous and he threw up as soon as they got off.

"Oh, poor kid!" Abigail said sympathetically, know what Maddie meant by what she said.

"I keep forgetting to tell you this, but I also made a new friend... someone who is my age." Maddie told her. She wanted to tell her mother about Jack and the other guardians, and knowing she wouldn't believe her if she said that her new friend was Jack Frost, Maddie made up fake background story for Jack and the other guardians, something that her mother would believe.

"Oh Honey that's wonderful!" Abigail responded, feeling overjoyed that her daughter has made a new friend and with someone her own age "What's her name?"

"Actually it's a guy, and his name is Jack."

"Oh new boyfriend I see!" Abigail said in a teasing manner.

"No mom, He's just a friend." Maddie told her while shaking her head, rolling her eyes and smiling at the way her mother was playfully teasing her.

"What's he like?" Abigail asked, interesed in knowing more about her daughter's new friend.

"He's hilarious, a lot of fun to be around, compassionate and loves playing funny tricks on people."

"A trickster huh? When did you meet him?"

"I met him at a pond not far from Karen's house, just three days after I arrived in Burgess."

"Where does he live?"

"He told me he moved to Burgess with his foster family two months ago." Maddie said as she began to tell her fake background story about Jack.

"He lives in a foster family?" Abigail asked.

"Yea, I met his foster family. They're really nice." Maddie told her " icholas North, Jack's foster father moved to America from Russia many years ago. He used to be married, but his wife died a long time ago. Knowing that his wife's greatest wish was to have children, North decided to fufill her wish by adopting Jack and three other foster kids."

"Oh! He sounds like a nice man!" Abigail told her "And what about the three other foster kids?"

"Jack has two foster brothers and one foster sister." Maddie continued "There's Aster who's from Australia, Sandy who was adopted from the state of Ohio and Toothianna who was originally born in a country somewhere in Southeastern Asia."

"Toothianna? That's an unusal name." Abigail said, sounding puzzled "But I suppose names like those are common in the country she's from. What about your friend Jack? Where's he originally from?"

"Alaska." Maddie told her mother. All of a sudden she noticed golden dreamsand floating around the air in her room. Knowing what that meant, Maddie turned around and saw the Sandman standing on the windowsill seat, smiling at her. He used his dreamsand to make a derby hat on top of his head and doffed it as a way of saying hellow to her before making the hat vanish. Maddie smiled back at the Sandman, feeling delighted to see the little bringer of dreams again.

"Hey mom, I gotta go now, it's almost time for lights out." Maddie told her mother.

"Okay Maddie, goodnight sweetie! I love you!" Abigail responded.

"Love you too mom! goodnight! I call you again next week." Maddie said, ending the conversation by hanging up. She then went over to the Sandman to greet him.

"Hi Sandy! I so nice to see you again! I suppose you're here to give the kids some sweet dreams!" Maddie said to him smiling. The Sandman smiled back and nodded his head in response to Maddie's guess to why he was here. He then raised his right small index finger which Maddie guessed that he was saying that he also here for something else.

Interested in what the little man wanted to tell her, Maddie drew her attention to him. Sandy turned to the opened window and put his fingers in his mouth to make a silent whistle, dreamsand forming a silent musical note above his head. At the sound of his silent whistle, a large glowing golden cloud made of dreamsand appeared outside the window and floated there as if waiting for something.

Realizing guessing what that meant, Maddie looked at the Sandman and said "Are you asking if I want to spend some time with you?"

Sandy nodded yes while smiling, responding to the girl's question. The idea of spending time with the Sandman somehow appealed to Maddie. It never came across her mind until now, but she also wanted to see the Sandman's work in action up close.

So when Sandy gestured her to go ahead and climb aboard the golden cloud, Maddie steped onto the windowsill seat and cautiously stuck her left foot onto it to make absolutely sure it can support her. Feeling that it can, she hopped onto the cloud and sat down before Sandy hopped on himself. The golden cloud then began to start moving, carrying the two passengers high up in the air, giving Maddie a tingly sensation that people get when they either ride a rollercoaster or an elevator.

As they floated through the nigh sky, Maddie watched the Sandman do his magic by sending strands of golden dreamsand to houses with sleeping children, just waiting to have sweet dreams created for them. Seeing the Sandman's work in action felt both magical and heartwarming for her. Sandy even stired the cloud near some houses so Maddie can look through the window to see what the child living there was dreaming about. In New York, she saw a little boy dream about being a superhero and in Paris, she saw a sweet, six-year-old little girl dream about being a princess fighting a ferocious dragon. Seeing the lovable children of the world being given sweet dreams made Maddie's heart light up with happiness. It reminded her of all the wonderful dreams she hade during her childhood.

Some hours later, Maddie and Sandy began to fly over the ocean. In the distance, Maddie saw a remote island. The island had long spiraling tendrils of land that come from the center. As they got closer to the island, she saw number of dunes in the center. When they entered the center of the island, in the center of the dunes, there was a large sparkling lagoon, containing what astonised Maddie greatly as she never thought that beautiful creatures like these could ever exist.

In the lagoon, there were six beautiful mermaids with long red hair and dresses made of their own scales that connected to their fish tails. The mermaids looked up and seeing the Sandman made all of them start to feel joy. Their joy turned to confusion when they realized that somebody was with him. When they reached the ground, Maddie hopped off and looked at the mermaids who were giving staring at the girl with curiousity. Maddie stared back at them, but with amazement instead of curiousity, feeling speechless about being in the presence of real life mermaids.

She was so busy staring at the mermaids with amazement that she didn't notice tiny creatures slowly walking up to her with curiosity until they were just a few inches from her feet. She looked down and saw that they were adorable little seashells with arms and legs, all either brown or sandy colored and all various shapes and sizes like shells, clams, conchs and mollousks. The sound of water moving was then heard and in the water Maddie saw different size green sea turtles with brown or dark green shells, also staring at her looking curious.

Noticing them staring at Maddie with curiosity, Sandy - using dreamsand and gestures and expressions - explained to the mermaids, seashells and sea turtles who Maddie is and that she is the first discovered Eternal Believer.

"An Eternal Believer?" one of the mermaids said with amazement "I thought those kind of believers only existed in stories."

"Me too!" Another mermaid agreed.

"So did I!" Another followed. Another mermaid swam over to Maddie. Maddie sat down in order to be a little closer to the mermaid's level as the beautiful creature greeted her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you my dear! Any friend of the Sandman is a friend of ours." the mermaid said to her softly "Welcome to the Island of Sleepy Sands! I'm Marina and these are my sisters, Fiona, Helen, Anora, Isabella and Callista!"

As the other mermaids waved to her with a smile, Maddie waved back at them smiling softly and saying "It's so nice to meet all of you! my name is Maddie! I gotta say this is a lovely island Sandy has!"

"Lovely this island is indeed." One of the sea turtle said, shocking Maddie with the fact that the sea turtle can talk "Yet it wasn't always an Island."

"It wasn't?" Maddie asked, still feeling surprised that the sea turtle can talk.

"No, it use to be a shooting star that was steered by our beloved Sandman." the sea turtle answered "Let me tell you the story of how our little friend became the Sandman."

Interested in knowing the Sandman's origins, Maddie focused her attention on the turtle as Sandy sat down beside her to listen to the story with her and the mermaids, seashells and other sea turtles listened as well.

"Before the Sandman became the Guardian of Dreams, he was part of organization of star captains known as The League of Star Captians. The League if Star Captians steered stars to every corner of the universe and their primary duty was to bestow the wishes made to their stars."

"Like how people make wishes on shooting stars?" Maddie asked.

"Exactly!" the sea turtle responded "But the stars that the League harnessed needed greater and greater speed so they could avoid Dream Pirates, who were especially intent on capturing wishing stars."

"Dream Pirates?"

"Dream Pirates were malevolent, indistinct, shadow-like figures that tranverse the galaxy on airships, to capture wishing stars."

"They don't sound like nice creatures." Maddie commented "Why were they trying to capture wishing stars?"

"Wishing stars are concentrated dream matter." the sea turtle responded "And each one stored tens of thousands of undreamed dreams that were made since the dawn of time; and their pilots were the key to unlocking these dreams. They planned on turning those dreams into nightmares."

"That definitely sounds horrible." Maddie said feeling tense. Just thinking about all those beautiful dreams turning into horrible nightmares made her feel uneasy.

"During his days as a Star Captain, the Sandman heard news of a wild new shooting star and immediately started to pursue it." the sea turtle continued "Seeing how this star could outpace any Dream Pirate vessle, Sandy knew that if he was going to saddle it, he needed to be clever. He also noticed that this particular star would sometimes slow down for schools of Star Fish and the star fish seem to have a kinship with the star. The Sandman's fellow star captians tried to sneak up on the shooting star when it was near a group of star fish but they failed everytime for the star was no fool."

"I didn't know there were fish that lived in outerspace." Maddie commented with amazement she felt from what she heard.

"The Sandman, who was liked by the creatures of the cosmos, decided to bring some supplies of a special spice and soon he was completely surrounded by them, hiding him completely." The sea turtle carried on "In time the star came near, and Sandy waited until it was gliding right by him before he charged through the star fish and lassoed the star with his line. The star was surprised but it only lasted for a second before it shot away with the greatest speed that Sandy has ever seen. He held on, pulling himself closer and closer to the star's burning apex. The star tried to knock Sandy off, even trying to scrape against a planet or two. It took Sandy fourteen Earth days to finally tame it."

"Why was the star so desperate to get away?" Maddie asked.

"According to the Sandman, not a lot is known about shooting stars." the Sea Turtle answered "Mortals never have a chance to do more than watch and wish upon it. But when you master a shooting star, something happens. You come to understand it. Each star has an individual personality that you can sense and feel. But this particular star had an energy that far exceeded any star Sandy knew. I had a voice and it spoke to him. While at first it would not tell Sandy its name, they came to an understanding. The star meant no harm and it knew that Sandy wanted to be its friend and ally."

"A shooting star that can talk." Maddie said, wondering why the shooting that Sandy captured can talk when no other star can.

"For some time, they sailed one end of the cosmos to the other while winning every battle against the Dream Pirates." The sea turtle continued "Then for a year they traveled in peace. Not once did they happen upon a single pirate and they became curious about their good fortune. Soon word came that the war with the Dream Pirates was over. It was said that Kozmotis Pitchiner, the greatest general in the galaxy and his golden army had been victorious and all Dream Pirates imprisoned."

Hearing the name Kozmotis Pitchiner got Maddie thinking. She wondered if he was the General that she danced with in the dream she had a few nights ago. The one whose voice and eyes changed just before she woke up to see a shadowy figure with the same eyes in her room.

"Sandy believed it to be a cause for a celebration." The Sea Turtle carried on "But upon hearing the news, the star broke free. It flew at breakneck speed, trying to crash into any heavenly body in its path. When it began to careen directly towards Earth, thousands of wishes rose up from the children of the doomed planet. Sandy identified the wishes as not hopeful but as terror filled wishes and he urged the star to stop by telling it that if the children feared you coming, it doesn't make you any better than a Dream Pirate and at the sound of that, the star stopped."

Maddie felt a sense of relief when she heard that the Sandman was able to stop the star before it can crash into planet Earth.

"But then Sandy knew that if a shooting star ever stopped, they quickly become a sun. It would only take a few minutes for the process to become Irreversible, but in all his eons as a Star Master, he never rode a star that just stopped. He sat at his controls and wondered what his wild star would do next. He then heard what sounded like crying and from the star's core he heard the star tell him that her name was Emily Jane and that she doesn't want to be feared. Trapped inside the star's core was a young girl Emily Jane, Kozmotis Pitchiner's daugher who a dissapeared a decade before when Dream Pirates attacked his home and killed his wife, Lady Maria Pitchiner."

"That explains why the star could talk." Maddie said, shocked by the fact that a young girl had been trapped inside the star and that the girl was the daughter of a great general.

"Sandy listened to Emily Jane's sad tale and understood her mysteries. He then offered her a choice to either stay there with her rage until she burns herself down or to fly again while letting him guide her and togeather they could do wonder and search for her father. She stood still without saying anything before she decided to fly again." The Sea Turtle continued "Togeather, they explored far away regions of the galaxy looking for her father. Discovering that very little was known in the regions, they started to work their way towards the greater center of the galaxy to the constellation of Zeus. It was a peaceful journey and when wishes came Emily Jane listened. She learned every kind of wish there was and came to understand all things that people yearned for. In time she could see the difference between wishes that were worthy of being granted and those that were not."

"During a discussion about wishes, Sandy asked what she wished for and she responded that she wishes to be washed clean of her old life, to let go of her tide of sorrows and to find her way to a new shore. Sandy found her wish to be good and worthy. To answer her wish, it would take all of Sandy's thoughts and wisdom to so he had to go into a sleepier trance to fashion an answer dream. It is during this trance that the star captian must let the star steer itself and be on the lookout for any trouble. Since their travels had been so peaceful and Emily Jane had always been up to the task of dealing with attacker, Sandy had no worries. But there was a danger neither of them had forseen."

Maddie had a feeling that something would go awry in the story of the Sandman and Emily Jane. Knowing that the Sandman is alright, she was hopeing that Emily Jane was alright as well for she felt sympathy towards the girl who had been seperated from her beloved father and lost her mother to villianous Dream Pirates at such a young age.

"In all the time that Emily Jane had been trapped in the star, she had been dreaming one dream over and over: That she would be reunited with her father." The Sea Turtle resumed "On the other side of the cosmos, in a planet-seized prison, the Dream Pirates detected her dream. At first they were puzzled as they believed that Emily Jane had perished along with her mother years before, but soon they realized that the dream was indeed coming from Kozmotis Pitchiner's daughter. So they hatched an awful plan. Every night, they listened to her dream until they knew the sound of her voice and could imitate it. Then one night, while Kozmotis was guarding the prison, they huddled next to the only enterance to the prison and whispered to him in his daughter's voice. Believeing that his daughter was in the prison, Kozmotis opened the door, thereby sealing his doom. The dark creatures took his soul and they possessed him completly, turning him into Pitch Black, the Boogeyman and the King of Nightmares."

Maddie's eyes widened and she silently gasped in shock when she heard that. She now realized that she didn't just dance with Kozmotis Pitchiner in her dream a few nights before, she had been dancing with the Pitch Black as well. His voice and eyes changing were a manifestation of the time he was turned into the Nightmare King, and the shadowy figure she saw when she woke up was the Boogeyman himself watching her sleep. Chills ran down her spine at the discovery of the one who invaded her dream and watched her sleep. It indicated that Pitch had escaped from his imprisonment and was forming another evil plan to shroud the world in darkness. The only things she couldn't figure out was the reason why Pitch was watching her sleep that night and why he invaded her dream.

"When they encountered Pitch's galleon, the Nightmare King and his crew began to shoot harpoons at the star, not knowing that his daughter was inside the star's core." The Sea Turtle continued "The first harpoon came as a surprise, but by the second and third, Sandy became fully awake and Emily Jane was charging at the Dream Pirate galleon that attacked them. They flew so close to the galleon that they could see the shadowy faces of the grisly crew, and at the ship's helm stood Pitch Black, now the captian of the vessle. Pitch asked the Sandman why he sent him a plaguing dream of his dead daughter and Sandy resonded that the dream was not a plauge, but a dream of hope. Pitch told him that he has no hope and that the dream is what killed his soul and made him what he has become."

"Realizing what he father has become, Emily Jane told Sandy that they must run as she feels that if he finds her, both of them will die. Sandy agreed and they began to fly away, but Pitch's men were too skilled and quick. Emily Jane tried to burn them away, but there were too many of them and they pulled their malevolent ship closer and closer. Emily Jane swerved and breached with a power that even Pitch's galleon could not contain and with one great last buck, they were free from the chains but they tumbled away. They spun and spiraled at a speed beyond endurance and Sandy was able to see Earth. He heard the dreams of children coming from the planet and knowing they will crash, he pulled at his controls and steered them over the ocean so as not to harm any children. As they pummeted towards the water, he heard one thing: a bright and clear single wish that told him that the one wishing wishes him well."

"Certain and he and his star were doomed, Sandy fell unconscious, but he thought of nothing more than the wish he heard. They skipped across the ocean's surface like a giant skipping stone, then came to a spray of water and all went black for him. Sandy did not wake for many many years and when he did, he found that the star shattered and pulverized into the very sandy island that you stand upon."

Maddie looked around and felt another sense of amazement at the knowlege that the island she stood upon use to be a shooting star that was controlled by the Sandman himself. She was actually standing on something that came from outerspace, something she never ever in her whole life thought she would ever experience.

"Around that time, the Man in the Moon needed a guardian to help him. Someone who would keep the children safe and the nightmares away when the moon was less than full and bright." The Sea Turtle carried on "While searching the Earth with his telescope, he recognized Sandy's face as the same fellow he once sent a wish to. Sandy was awakened by that same voice that comforted him all those years ago, the voice that had wished him well was the voice of the the Man in the Moon. The Man in the Moon asked the Sandman if he would keep the children safe at night, when the moon was not bright or full. The Sandman agreed, for if a wish was made fir him, he would feel bound to answer it. He walked around this island, wondering how he could help the children of Earth."

"That's when my brethern sea turtles and I came in. We told him about the children's fear of the dark. Then came the Sea Shells who told him about the children's joys and sorrows. We also told him that Pitch's Dream Pirates stilled roamed the night in search of sleeping children to hazard."

"Sandy knew that to help the children, he must once again face his ancient enemies, but he felt afraid." Marina said, taking over for the Sea Turtle "For days, his restless mind would not let him sleep and without sleep, he could do nothing. But my sisters and I knew of a way to help the Sandman. We sang him a lullaby and soon Sandy found himself dreaming. He dreamt of how he would help the children of Earth, and as he did, the island began to transform into a wonderous castle."

"From the castle, a great cloud of sand carried him into the night sky and across the land. He sent a lovely dream with his dreamsand to every child who was sleeping. As the dreamsand chased away the nightmares, the children slept unafraid. As the nightmares came, Sandy grabbed each one and told them you are not real, you are not true, you are nothing, and with Sandy's with gone, the nightmares became harmless and turned back into golden dreamsand."

"With the children safe and the Man in the Moon's wish granted, the Man in the Moon gave Sandy a name worthy of his talents. _His Noctunal Magnifence, Sanderson Mansnoozie, Sandman the First, Lord High Protector of Sleep and Dreams_. Sandy became the first guardian and from that night on made his round to send forth dreamsand."

"That's an amazing story." Maddie said as she looked at the Sandman with a smile. The story made her appreciate the Sandman even more. He has done such wonderful things, coming up with creating beautiful dreams to help the children of the world not be afraid of the dark anymore being the greatest thing he has ever done. Without the Sandman, then the world would be filled with fear, a picture she couldn't stand even thinking about. All of a sudden, she remebered Emily Jane.

"But about Emily Jane? What happened to her?" Maddie asked the sea turtles and mermaids. Even though Emily Jane is the daughter of Pitch Black, Maddie hoped that she was okay. Just because her father is evil, that doesn't mean she is too.

"When the star crashed to Earth, Emily Jane was free from her imprisonment." The Sea Turtle explained "Afterwards she became Mother Nature."

"THE Mother Nature?!" Maddie asked with surprised. She has heard of Mother Nature many times before and was surprised to discovered the Boogeyman's daughter was the actual Mother Nature.

"Yes." Marina answered her, she then realized the position of the moon in the sky and realized what time it was "You should head home now, it'll be dawn in a few hours."

As much as she wanted to stay just a little bit longer, Maddie knew that Marina was right. It she didn't get home to get at least a few hours of sleep, she would be tired in the morning, which would not be good since she babysits Jamie and Sophie in the mornings. Plus she wouldn't know what to tell Karen if she got caught sneaking back into the house through the window at the crack of dawn.

So when the Sandman called forth a cloud of dreamsand again, Maddie climbed aboard with him and said goodbye to the mermaids, sea turtles and sea shells. They returned back to the Bennett's house forty five minutes later. Before they said goodbye to one another, Maddie gave the Sandman five envelopes and told him to give one to each guardian, to which Sandy agreed. Each envelope contained an invitation to the Fourth of July party thrown at the Hathaway mansion every year and Maddie wanted to invite the Guardians... that is of course if they're not too busy.

She gave the Sandman a big hug and lied down in her bed as Sandy tossed dreamsand on her to make her fall asleep before leaving.

 **Finally finished! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Those of you who read the book series are probably familiar with the story of the Sandman. Some of you probably believe that the movie and the book series aren't canon, but I like both of them so much I decided to combined the universes togeather.**

 **I gave names to the mermaids that appeared in the book series, I even named one of the mermaids after my younger sister. I decided to name Lady Pitchiner (Pitch's deceased wife) Maria because it sounded lovely and elegant and it's another form of the name Mary, a reference to William Joyce's daughter Mary Katherine who became the reason for Joyce to write the book series after she died from a brain tumor at the age of 18.**

 **Again reviews would be appreciated, next chapter coming soon. Mary Katherine Joyce may she rest in peace.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 14**

 **July 4th, 2015 4:30 p.m.**

Maddie steped outside into the backyard with two large plastic bowls of chips. One filled with Cool Ranch Doritos and the other containing Barbecue Chips. The backyard of the Hathaway Mansion was large and wide containing a large swimming pool with one low diving board, one high diving board, a swimming pool slide and bordered with concrete. There was also a hot tub, multiple sunloungers for tanning and relaxing, a tennis court, a large stone barbecue grill, a cast stone fire pit, two long picnic tables and an outdoor stereo with a remote control.

It was the Fourth of July and the neighbors who were friends with the Hathaway family showed up for barbecue get togeather thrown at the mansion every year. The guests at the barbecue included Karen, Jamie, Sophie, Jamie's friends, Kayla Allen, Caleb and Claude's single mother, Ralp Kinsey, Pippa's widower father, Ruthie Hargrove, Monty's divorced mother and her boyfriend Patrick Webourne, Robert and Melissa Baucum, Cupcake's parents and Ellie Baucum, Cupcake's older sister.

The men were grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, ribs, and bockwurts on their own kettle grills that they brought over while the women stood nearby chatting with each other while drinking cans of soda or bottles of beer. Jamie, Sophie and Jamie's friends were having fun playing in the swimming pool. After setting the bowls of chips on one of the picnic tables, Maddie joined the kids in the pool. They all laught with amusement as they splashed around, jumped off the low diving board and slid down the slide multiple time in the pool.

"Hey you guys! Watch this!" Jamie said as he once again walked onto the low diving board. Everyone stopped to watch what he was about to show them.

"All right Jamie we're watching." Maddie told Jamie with a smile, interested in seeing another one of his dives.

"This one's for professionals only!" Jamie said in a funky tone of voice. He speeded towards the end on the diving board and jumped of the springy end.

"BONZAI!" He shouted as he tucked his knees to his chest while in the air, doing a cannonball in the water that splashed everyone. As soon as he resurfaced, everyone clapped and cheered, including Sophie who was claping and giggling in amusement from her toddler duck floatie.

"I give that a ten." they heard a familiar voice say. They all looked up a saw Jack along with Sandy, North, Tooth and Bunny.

"Jack! North! Tooth! Sandy! Bunny! Oh my gosh! You guys actually came!" Maddie said to them feeling thunderstrucked with wide eyes and a smile of joy "You all are so busy bringing joy to children I assumed neither of you guys would come!"

"During our battle against Pitch not long ago, we learned a great lesson from Jack." North explained to her "We work so hard to bring joy to children, we figured we should at least take a little bit of time off every now and again in order to spend time with children."

"I left Baby Tooth in charge while I'm gone." Tooth told her "Sandy decided to postpone his nigtly routine to a later time tonight, North and Bunny have plenty of time to get everything ready for next Christmas and Easter and Jack prefers to spread his winter magic whenever he feels like it."

"Yes, and now thank heaps to you love, I'll be wakin up every mornin with icicles hanging out of my nostrils for six months." Bunny told her crossing his arm while looking down at her with an impatient look.

"Hey! I'm not the one who made the bet with Frost Boy and lost!" Maddie teased him with a smile, causing Bunny to roll his green eyes in annoyance.

"Great! Just what we need! Another Goofball!" Bunny thought sarcastically in his head.

"Come on in!" Jamie told the guardians with joy "There's plenty of water for everyone!"

Wanting to join the kids, one by one the guardians jumped into the pool. Because of his huge size, North caused some of the pool's water to overflow, yet neither Maddie nor the children or the other guardians cared about some of the water overflowing for they were all more focused on having a great time to worry about something like that. Out of all of the guardians, Bunny was the only one who didn't join for he didn't want to get wet.

"Come on Bunny join us! The water's great!" Maddie urged the Easter Bunny, wanting him to participate in the fun they were all having in the pool.

"Not a chance Love." Bunny refused "I like my fur dry thank you!"

Being on the same terms as Maddie, Jack decided to make the rabbit not be a fuddy duddy and have him join in on the fun. So while Bunny wasn't paying attention, he took his staff and while trying so hard to keep his laughter in, he hooked the arched end around the rabbit's waist and pulled him right into the water.

"CRIKEY!" Bunny cried out as he fell in with a splash. Seeing what Jack had done, everyone in the pool laughed with amusement. Bunny resurfaced gasping in a huge breath of air with wide shocked eyes and hastily grabbed the edge of the pool and pulled himself out. Everyone laughted really hard at the funny shocked look the rabbit had on his face as he stood there frozen as water dripped off of his now soaked greyish blue fur.

Bunny frown at Jack in annoyance before he got on all fours and shook himself dry like a dog, spraying water on everyone in the pool, making all of them giggle in amusement.

Everyone splashed around in the pool and played water games such as fish out of water, sharks and minnows, and gator. They even played a few rounds of chicken fight with Jamie sitting on Jack's shoulders and Pippa sitting on Maddie's shoulders, laughing with joy as the two younger kids tried to push each other off while the teens acted as their vechicles aiding them. Maddie gave Bunny permission to hop around the lawn with Sophie riding on his back... just as long as they were careful.

Maddie noticed that Bunny was quite fond of Sophie for he smiled the moment he saw the little toddler and Sophie's face lit up with happiness when she saw the rabbit, shrieking the words "Bunny! Hop! Hop! Hop!" while bouncing in her floatie with excitement, idicating that she wanted to be let out so she could greet the Easter Bunny. The first couple of times Maddie saw Bunny, he always look annoyed and impatient. Therefore, this was the first time she had ever seen the rabbit smile. Seeing the Easter Bunny smile and play with little Sophie warmed Maddie's heart, causing her to make a small gentle smile herself.

After an hour of fun in the pool, everyone went inside the mansion to dry off and change back into their clothes. They then played blind man's bluff out on the lawn with Maddie playing the blindfolded tagger. Everyone else laughted with joy and amusement as they scattered around and teased Maddie to make her change directions with Maddie laughing along with them and waving her arms out if front of her. Being blindfolded, Maddie could not see a thing and therefore triped over a lawn gnome during the game, falling flat on her stomach. But instead of moaning in pain, she laughted at herself making the others laugh along with her.

Afterwards they set up a net and played badminton. Another hilarious moment occured when North tried to hit the birdie with his racket. He missed and the birdie fell into his white beard. North dropped his racket to feel around his beard for the birdie and when he couldn't feel it he lifted his beard and shook it to no avail. Thinking it fell down his red shirt, North looked down it but saw no birdie. Now believeing that it's in his trousers, he started to goofily hop around trying to shake the birdie out.

"Hehehe where is it North? Did you loose it?" Tooth asked him while giggling at the funny way the old man was hoping around.

"It.. it must be in here someplace!" North responded nervously as he continued to hop around.

"Oh North you look so silly!" Maddie said laughing uncontrollably while the others laughed along with her. She then spotted the birdie just a few feet behind North "Oh look! There it is behind you!"

North picked up the birdie and everyone continued the game. After eating the delicious barbecue dinner the adults have cooked up, Maddie, the kids and the guardians began to dance along to some tunes being played on the stereo. For the children's sake, Maddie had the stereo only play songs that had no swear words in them or songs that had the swear words censored out. the songs that played on the stereo were popular tunes such as "What Does the Fox Say" by Ylvis, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams and "Gangnam Style" by PSY. "Firework" by Katy Perry also played on the stereo and Maddie loved dancing to that song every year since it was the perfect song to listen to on the Fourth of July, the time of year where sparkly and colorful fireworks light up the night sky and put on a spectacular show and almost everyone danced to the extremely popular dance song "Cha Cha Slide" by DJ Casper.

"Oh my gosh! I love this song!" Maddie said when "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins started to play on the stereo. She started to dance along to the song with enthusiasm and everyone watched in amazement as the girl performed her extremely remarkable dance moves. Maddie was a professional dancer. She became interested in dancing when she was a toddler and has practiced different kinds ever since, learning ballet at age four, having jazz dancing lessons at age eight and gaining an interest in hip hop at eleven years. Her dance moves were in fact so amazing that a lot of people say that she should be in one of those Step Up movies or Footloose the musical.

After performing a few dance moves, Maddie gave everyone else a turn to show off their dancing skills. One by one, Jamie and his friends performed a move or two, especially Cupcake whose break dancing was really impressive. North filled the children with wonder with a russian folk dance that almost resembled the Trepak dance from the famouse Nutcracker ballet. Tooth performed a beautiful southeastern asian type of cultural dance, dazzling everyone with the way she performed it gracefully while she levitated in the air on her wings which made her dance look even more lovely. Sandy danced with a cane made of golden dreamsand in his hands and Jack was really impressive with his freestyle.

Noticing that Bunny was just standing by and watching the whole time everyone else was dancing, Maddie and Jack went over to him with the intention to try to get the rabbit to join in on the fun.

"Come on Bunny! Join the party! Dance with us!" Maddie told him with a wide smile as she took his furry paw in order to lead him to the dance floor."

"Crikey! Me dance!?" Bunny said nervously as his green eyes widen with alarm.

"Yes you!" Jack said while chuckling as if the rabbit's reaction was a joke.

"No, no I can't... I don't dance." Bunny said as he shook his head.

"Oh come on! Try it! It's fun." Maddie tempted him. She lifted it one of the Easter Bunny's feet and pointed at it "Besides! You got the perfect feet for it!"

"I... I do?" Bunny said as he looked at his foot feeling kind of flattered by the girl's compliment.

"Yea! Now come on Bunny! Try it!" Jack said as he took the rabbit's paws and started to swing him around to the music "Dancing makes you feel great!"

Right after the frost boy told him that, Bunny decided to give dancing a try. He started by tapping his foot to the rythme of the music, then he started to bobbing his head sideways and pretty soon the Pooka started to move his whole furry body the more confident he started to feel about the whole. For a Pooka who didn't dance, he sure had some really amazing moves that surprised everyone and they clapped and cheered as he what you might say "Shaked his cotten tail". It wasn't long before Bunny started to enjoy the whole thing.

"Holy-dooly!" He said happily said as he continued to dance to the beat "It actually does!"

Everyone continued dancing to the music and playing games until the day turned into night where they watched the colorful sparkling fireworks light up the sky and the children played with sparklers. As they were watching the wonderful firework show, Jack took a look at Maddie and noticed something on upper left side of her back, wondering how on earth did he not notice it before. On the upper left side of the girl's back was a tan crescent moon shaped birthmark causing the winter spirit to wonder if the birthmark somehow is suppose to have a connection to the Man in the Moon since the Man in the Moon was the very first thing that popped into his mind when he saw the mark.

Maddie looked back at Jack and noticing that he was looking at the birthmark on her back with a questionable look, she began to explain it to him "It's a birthmark, it runs in the family."

"Really?" Jack said to her.

"Yea on my mother's side" Maddie further explained "My mother has it, my maternal grandmother has it and so on and so forth."

Hearing that the birthmark runs in Maddie's family made Jack cross out the belief that the girl was somehow connected to the Man in the Moon. He continued to watch the fireworks with everyone else, deciding that the birthmark is just a coincidence.

 **Finally finished. I apologize for the delay of this chapter, I was having case of writer's block for a while. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chaper.**

 **For those who are fans of The Guardians of Childhood book series, you might of heard the sad news. Elizabeth Baucum Joyce, William Joyce's wife passed away a couple of months ago after six years of fighting ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). She was an amazing and beautiful woman and was the inspiration for some of the wonderful characters in the book series which includes Tsarina Lunanoff, Toothianna and Mother Nature. My heart shattered the very moment I heard that she passed away. She is now in heaven with her daughter, Mary Katherine.**

 **Reviews are very much appreciated, next chapter coming soon. May the beloved and beautiful Elizabeth Joyce rest in peace.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 15**

 **July 12th, 2015 9:45 p.m**

 _"This is unit one of Learning Russian: Part 1"_ said the voice on the cd that Maddie was listening to. When she went into town to run some errands for Karen today, Maddie had made a stop in Burgess' local bookstore when she spotted a book on learning russian in the store's window along with an audio cd that went with it. It reminded her of North and she suddenly had the desire to learn the russian language. Who knows? Learning russian could probably be useful someday. So she purchased the set along with a portable cd player and headphones and waited until she had put Jamie and Sophie to bed before beginning to try it out.

 _"List to this russian conversation."_ the audio voice continued. Maddie then listened to a short conversation between a man and a woman speaking in russian, having no idea what they were say before the audio voice came up again _"You'll learn not only to understand this conversation, but to take part in it yourself. Imagine and american man meeting a russian woman. He wants to begin a conversation so he says Excuse me - Izvinite. The russian speaker is going to repeat this word part by part starting from the end. You are to repeat each part after him, trying to make your pronounciation sound exactly like his. Be sure you repeat aloud... te."_

"Te." Maddie repeated trying to pronounce the part of the word exactly the way she heard it.

 _"Nite."_

"Nite"

 _"Vinite."_

"Vinite."

 _"Izvinite"_

"Izvinte."

Learning russian was easier than she thought. For the next hour, she listened and learned phrases and words step by step such as "Hello", "Goodbye", "My name is...", "Thank you", "Your welcome" and "Do you speak english?".

Forty-five minutes later, the first unit of part 1 ended and after checking on the kids to see if they were alright and in bed like they were suppose to be, Maddie turned in for the night, eager for the Sandman to give her and the children of the world pleasant dreams. She pull the comforters over her body, relishing in the soft texture and the sweet fresh smell it had from the detergent she used when she washed it today as Ike jumped up onto the bed and laid down next to her ready to go to sleep as well. Maddie affectionatly stroked her little dog a few times before wrapping her arm around him and laying her head onto the fluffy pillows, her eyes heavy with sleep.

It was the middle of the night when the sound of eerie, creaky footsteps woke Maddie up with a fright. Ike lifted his head and made a low growl as he looked at the bedroom door as if he was expecting a bugular to break it down any minute, having been woken up by the footsteps as well. They were coming from right outside in the hallway, getting loud one minute and then becoming softer the next before becoming loud once again, giving the impression that the one making the footsteps was pacing back and forth from one end of the hall to the other.

Hearing those footsteps made Maddie's body turn cold with fear as she slowly sat up in bed, her heart pounding in her chest as she tried to keep her heavy breathing quiet so that whoever it was outside wouldn't hear her, never taking her eyes off the door. She climbed out of bed and grabbed the aluminum baseball bat she kept closeby just in case someone tried to break into the house during the night, fearing that a man had broken into the house and that the man was going to harm Jamie and Sophie.

"Stay here boy." She whispered to Ike, who imediatly followed her command by keeping his attention on the door and holding his position, ready to attack whoever comes into the room. Maddie quietly opened the door a little to take a peak outside the bedroom in order to spot the intruder without being seen herself. When she saw no one out the the hall, she snuck outside and quietly looked in each room, carrying the bat in a position so that she would be ready to swing it at the intruder when she encounters him.

The fear inside her began to rise when she suddenly started to think that the intruder was Pitch Black. She felt terrified just thinking about that because she didn't know if the Boogeyman was either planning to kill her, harm her or kidnap her. But she also more afraid of what he would do to Jamie and Sophie. She just couldn't bare the idea of Pitch hurting those kids. In her mind, she began to wish that Jack or one of the other guardians was here.

After checking all the rooms upstairs, she quietly creapt downstairs to see if the intruder was in one of the rooms on the first floor. She looked in every room only to find nobody. When Maddie checked the kitchen last, she once again found no one. She then checked all the doors and windows and found that they were all locked and that non of them were broken, forced open or anything. Her heart began to feel at ease as she began to believe that the footsteps she heard was just the house creaking.

Maddie made her way back upstairs to head back to her room. When she reached the top however, she noticed that Jamie's bedroom door was open. Feeling fear again, she slowly went over there holding up the bat, afraid that Pitch was hurting the boy. She looked in and saw that Jamie's bed was empty. Her eyes widened with horror as she stood there paralized by great fear, thinking that Jamie had been kidnapped by Pitch. She started to panic, not only feeling worried about the boy, but also afraid of how Karen would react when she discovers that one of her kids has gone missing. How was on earth was she going to explain this her?

"Maddie?" a voice suddenly said, causing Maddie to gasp with a start. She looked behind her to her relief saw Jamie. He was holding a glass of water, looking at her with a confused expression.

"What are you doing?" Jamie asked her as if she had just done something that was really weird.

"I thought someone broke into the house." Maddie told him as she lowered her bat "Jamie why are you up?"

"I was thirsty, I wanted a glass of water." Jamie told her as if the question she asked him was a ridiculous question.

"You really scared me sweetie." Maddie told him with a smile of relief, causing the boy to smile back at her.

"Sorry" Jamie apologized with a small chuckle.

"All right, back to bed kiddo." Maddie told him, still smiling.

"Goodnight Maddie."

"Goodnight Jamie."

After Jamie crawled back into his own bed, setting his glass of water on his bedside table, Maddie closed the boy's door and went back to her own room. She calmed down Ike, assuring her little dog that everything was okay before both of them went right back to sleep. But as soon as Maddie and Ike were deep in their sleep, the Nightmare King materialized out of the shadows and sat down in order to watch her sleep, still smelling that extremely sweet aroma of fear that this pretty girl had given off moments before.

 **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Review what you think of the story so far. The next chapters will start to have a climax. I hope all of you had a really great Easter. Keep having hope in your life. Next chapter coming soon.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 16**

 **July 22nd, 2015 9:00 p.m.**

Maddie punched out at the end of her shift and went out into the parking lot towards her car. Because of the hard work she has done and the responsibility she has shown working at the resturant for the past few years, Wade called Maddie into his office today and told her that he would consider promoting her to assistant manager next year if she kept up the great work. To Maddie, she found the possibility of being promoted next year to be the third greatest thing that happened to her this summer, with meeting the Guardians of Childhood in person being number one and the sucessful interview she had with the Dean of Burgess University being rated second place. She managed to dress professionally and aceptionally for the interview and feel and act confident while answering everyone of the Dean's questions. She knew the interview was sucessful when the Dean that she had a high chance of getting accepted and would recieve a letter in a few months. Hearing that definatly made Maddie's spirit soar with great hope and joy.

Strange things have been happening as well however. Things that made Maddie feel uneasy. It all started nine days before when she lost her car keys. She looked all over the house for them before finally finding them in her room in plain sight as if they had been purposly placed there for her to see. At that time she didn't think much of it, believing that it was just Sophie messing around with her things again. Like most two year olds, Sophie got into other people's things alot and makes a mess with them.

Later that night however while taking a bath, Maddie suddenly started to get the feeling that she was being watched, as if some Peeping Tom was watching her bathe even though the bathroom had no windows and she had the door locked so no one in the house would accidentally walk in on her. She was also waking up in middle of the night every night with the sound of Ike growling and the feeling that somthing unwelcoming was in the room with her watching her sleep only to dissapear when she tried to look for it. After the first few nights, she was again woken up in the middle of the night, but instead of trying to find the source of her uneasiness one more time, Maddie lied down still in her bed, paralized by fear, feeling too afraid to even look.

But the most terrifying thing of all happened just the night before as she was sleeping. Once again, Maddie woke up in the middle of the night with the feeling of dread, only this time, she saw the same shadowy figure that visited her during the night not too long ago. Before she could react, the figure shoved a pillow into her face and tried to smother her with it. Her screams and cries for help were muffled as she desperatly struggled to get the pillow away from her face so she could breathe. Just as she was about to pass out from the lack of oxygen, the weight holding the pillow down to her face suddenly lifted and Maddie pushed the pillow away taking in huge gasps of air. She breathed deeply and heavily while sobbing loudly, feeling scared half to death.

Her sobbing and heavy breathing woke Karen up, causing her to hastily to run over to Maddie's room with distress, fearing that something terrible had happen to the daughter of her close friend. Feeling relieved to see that the girl was okay, Karen asked her what had happened. For a moment, Maddie didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell the truth because she knew that Karen wouldn't believe her. So she told her that she rolled over in her sleep and unintentionally smothered herself. Buying Maddie's explaination, Karen went back to bed feeling relieved. The same couldn't be said for Maddie as she lied awake in bed for the rest of the night, feeling too afraid to fall back to sleep for she feared that if she did, the Boogeyman would come back and try to kill her again.

Not only was Maddie frightened, but she was confused as well. Why was Pitch stalking and harassing her? The Nightmare King knew perfectly well that Maddie had no way been involved in the battle against him a few months ago. If it was about revenge, he would have gone after the guardians or the children, which was some Maddie absolutley positively did not want to happen. But if not about revenge, then what was all the stalking and harassment about? It scared her not having a clue about what Pitch planned to do to her. Sometimes she wonders if the Man in the Moon was aware that Pitch was up to something and was coming up with a plan to not only protect her, but also protect the ones she loves.

Maddie tried to focus on the positive as she drove along the road with the radio playing music that made her feel at ease and mellow. The road she normally took had recently closed due to road work so she decided to take the one through the forest. No one ever took the road through the woods at night. It gave off a creepy vibe as if it was haunted or something, especially since there were no streetlights and the air being deathly still and silent adding to it. There was another road to take home yet that road was a long way and can take Maddie hours just to get back to the Bennett's. So for that reason, she made the decision to set aside her fear and take the creepy road back since it was shorter.

The soothing music on the radio made Maddie feel relaxed, until all of a sudden it started to become muffled over by a disturbing static noise, making her confused. Her car has never done something like that before, in fact, she has never been in a car that has ever done that before. The static on the radio became louder and started screeching like fingernails being raked across a chalkboard making Maddie's ears bleed. Maddie turned the knob on the radio in order to turn it down, but the screeching continued no matter how many times she turned the knob to low volume. She then pressed the off button thinking that would help but it was also no use as the radio just wouldn't shut off.

Maddie had been so occupied with trying to turn the radio off the she hadn't been paying attention to the road. Suddenly realizing, she quickly looked up just as her car hit a shadowy form, causing it to go flying overhead in the air. Maddie screamed in terror as she slamed on the brakes, causing her car to come to a screeching stop, creating tire marks on the road. She hardly noticed that the static on the radio had stopped for she was feeling really scared, thinking she had just killed someone with her car.

Maddie quickly opened her glove compartment and took out a black flashlight. She exited the car and ran back the way she came in order to look for the person she had just ran over to see if they were badly hurt, not bothering to close the car door behind her in the process. As she looked for the presumed to be injured pedestrian, Maddie called herself an idiot for not paying attention to the road. She wouldn't have unintentionally murdered someone if she hadn't been so stupid. If she ends up going to court, she will take responsibility for her actions and take any kind of punishment the judge gives her.

Maddie looked all over the entire section of the road but found no sign of the one she hit with her car. There was no body, no blood, nothing which was really odd. She went over to the ditch close to the road, wondering if the pedestrian landed somewhere near the woodland area. She suddenly heard rustling in some bushes nearby, causing her to cautiously stand real still.

"Hello." Maddie said, thinking it was the person she ran over. As she pointed her flashlight at the bushes, it rustled for a few more moments. Without warning, something jumped out of the bushes causing Maddie to shriek in alarm before realizing it was a black car with yellow eyes. The cat meowed and stared at her for a second before scampering off into the forest. Maddie placed her hands over her heart and started laughing in relief, thinking it was funny that she got startled by a little kitty while at the same time wondering what it was doing out here.

"Madison." an eerie echoey voice whispered her name, causing Maddie to become still again. Ice cold fear shot through her and her heart rate increased as she breathed heavily. When the voice whispered her name again, Maddie's eyes grew wide with horror as she realized who that voice belonged to... Pitch Black.

Without hesitating, Maddie darted back to her car at full speed. She tossed her flashlight into the passenger seat as she quickly closed the door. But before she could step on the gas, to her horror she saw a shadowy figure sitting in the backseat of her car in the rearview mirror, the same shadowy figure she hoped to never encounter again. When she gasped in terror at the sight of the menacing form in her car, the shadow clasped a hand over her mouth holding a chlorinated wash cloth over her mouth and nose. Maddie squirmed and screamed in horror as she tried to pry the hand off of her. Her struggling weakened as her eyes began to feel heavy with sleep. Maddie let out a muffled moan as everything went black.

 **Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Looks like things are starting to get intense. What is Pitch planning to do with Maddie? Be on a lookout for the next chapter to find out what will happen.**

 **Warning: Next chapter will contain sexual abuse and torture. You know who will finally apear in the next chapter coming soon.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 17**

 **July 22nd, 2015 9:20 p.m**

Maddie felt too groggy to even open her eyes as she regained consciousness. She moaned sluggishly as she rubbed the side of her head and griped her fingers into a blanket that felt incredibly soft and smooth like the finest silk in the world. Feeling the fabric got her attention, causing her to shoot her eyes open and jolt up with shaky breaths of fright and bewilderment. Completly forgetting the drowsy feeling she had, Maddie breathed heavily and her heart pounded in her chest as she looked around, discovering that she was in an unfamiliar place that felt gloomy and unwelcoming.

The location seemed to look like an ancient palace that is sunken into the ocean floor, surrounded by mud and rocks. There were stone bridges and staircases almost all over the place and the whole enviorment was built at an angle, making the place feel as though it was about to fall off a cliff and into an abyss along with a chilly sensation and the musty smell of a basement. As Maddie looked around, she saw numbers of black iron cages that seemed to resemble giant bird cages hanging from the ceiling, eerily creaking as they slowly swayed from side to side. She also noticed a large globe with millions of tiny lights all over the continents, just like the one she saw at the North Pole except this one was smaller in size and was colored grey and black instead of blue and green.

Still griping the silk beneath her, Maddie realized that she was sitting on a king size canopy bed with curtains, pillowcases and comforters made of silk and all in different shades of black. Instantly, she began to recollect what happened, the sinful voice, the familiar shadowy figure and everything going black when the terrifying form clapsed a chloroform rag over her mouth and nose, the recent memory causing her eyes to go wide with fright, her breathing to become heavier, her heart beat to increase twice its rate and her body to shake as if the room just got colder.

"Hello Madison." She heard a familiar soft seductive british voice say to her. Reconizing that voice, Maddie quickly turned her head in the direction it was coming from and to her horror, she saw the same silver golden yellow eyes she had seen many times before staring at her with a hungry expression through the shadows. They slowly steped forward into the light to finally reveal the Boogeyman's face to her. Pitch Black was a grown man, tall, lithe and dark in appearance. His skin was a sickly dull pale-gray color and he had glossy black hair that was styled to come out as slick, sharp spikes from the back of his head. The Nightmare King sported a long black rob with a V-neck line and sleeves that look as if they were made of shadows. Underneath the robe, he wore black trousers and the footwear he had on also seemed to be made of shadows. Maddie also noticed that Pitch wasn't wearing a shirt underneath his robe, the neckline making a little bit of his torso visible to her which made her feel uncomfortable. He still retained his long handsome face, only this time, it felt threatening and evil instead of warm and gentle like she saw it before in a dream, making Maddie peterfied.

In his arms, Pitch was holding the same black cat that had spooked Maddie before, purring as the Nightmare King unconsciously stroked its furry dark coat, never taking his menacing gaze off the girl. Maddie's breathing began to become heavier and her heart rate increased to the point where it felt like it was gonna burst out of her chest as Pitch slowly prowled towards her with a preditorial smile, almost as if he were a lion crawling carfully through tall grass, getting ready to maul an unsuspecting antelope. As he stalked towards her, he released the cat from his arms, letting it scurry away to a different part of the area. The Boogeyman closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose before exhaling through his mouth letting out a sigh of bliss as if there was an aromatic scent in the air that made him feel aroused and serene.

"Wha.. what do you want from me?!" Maddie demanded fearfully. The Nightmare King only chuckled in amusement, fully aware of the girl's fear which he took great pleasure in sensing.

"Now is that any way to greet a stranger?" Pitch maliciously teased her. The Boogeyman then reached into his robe and pulled out a small, black camcorder. He faced the camera towards Maddie and pressed the record button, making the small red light on the camera turn on. "Now smile real pretty for the camera sweetheart."

"Please don't kill me!" Maddie begged him, thinking he was planning kill her. She felt great distress just thinking of dieing at the the hands of the Boogeyman.

"Don't be afraid Beautiful, I'm not planning to kill you." Pitch assured her, yet still sounding sinister as he placed the camera on tripod near the bed. He was talking as if he was planning to do something else to Maddie, something that is worse than being murdered.

"You.. you better let me go!" Maddie warned him, making a failed attempt to sound fearless "Sooner or later the Guardians will discover that I've gone missing! They'll come looking for me! They'll know it was you! And then you'll be sorry!"

Pitch only laughed at the her assertion. "Your fake courageous attitude doesn't fool me... I can smell your fear." He replied with an evil smile "As for the Guardians, Why they're so busy bringing joy to the children of the world! Who knows how long it'll be before they notice your dissapeareance? Besides I'm not planning on keeping you for long... just for half an hour!"

Without warning, the Nightmare King grabbed Maddie by the shoulders and forced her onto her feet, causing the vunerable girl to cry out in terror. She tried to pull away from the horrible man but he had a vice like grip on her, the ends of his fingers putting painful pressure into her shouders. Pitch bended forward a little so that his nose was a few inches from Maddie's hair and deeply inhaled through his nose, sighing out through his mouth in ecstasy as if the girl's fear was heroin and he was a drug addict getting high on it.

"Generally I prefer the scent of fear from children, but who knew the scent of an Eternal Believer's fear can be so addicting?" Pitch whispered in the girl's ear as she shuddered and whimpered when she felt his repulsive hot breath on her. Maddie didn't like the way shadow man was talking to her or the way he was smelling her. It felt uncomfortable and wrong. All she wanted to do was run as far away from this maniac as possible and into the arms of someone she felt safe and comfortable with and hide her face into either their shoulder or chest.

"Please just let me go!" Maddie begged him, her voice now beginning to sound brittle as if she will begin crying any moment "Just tell me what you want! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"

Pitch chuckled as he shoved Maddie back onto the bed, making her cry out in alarm once again. "I want you to watch what I'm about to show you." the dark man responded with a vile keen look on his face "And I have quit a lot to show you."

He reached into his robe and this time, pulled out a small black romote. When he pressed one of the buttons, a digital projector that was built over the bed began to display a video on the solid wall in front of Maddie. What was shown on the video mortified the girl.

The video showed Maddie bathing in the bathtub at the Bennett's residence, lathering herself up with a bar of white soap, her naked body covered up by the foamy bubbles in the water. At first she seemed to be unaware of what's happening as she cleaned herself up while humming a lovely little tune. She suddenly stopped humming as she frowned and raised her eyebrows in suspense, showing that she was getting the feeling that she was being watched as she cautiously scanned her eyes around the bathroom. Now knowing why she felt that way that night, Maddie's eyes grew wide and she covered her mouth as whimpered in horror, still viewing the video. The awful Boogeyman had taped her while she was washing herself and without her knowledge or consent. It scared her learning that a video of her wet and with no clothes on had been recorded, making her feel humiliated, exposed and dirty.

"She's quit beautiful isn't she? A beautiful bathing bird." Pitch jested to her "But do you think she has any idea of what the future holds for her?"

"Why are you showing this to me?" Maddie questioned him with a shaky voice.

"Why are you even watching?" The Boogeyman taunted her. He turned the projector off and faced towards Maddie with a perverted expression "Now unbutton your uniform and let me feel your bosom."

"What?!" Maddie softly exclaimed, extremely shocked and offended by the Nightmare King's request.

"You heard me you little slut."

"No... I don't want to... No!"

"How about this? Either you unbutton your clothes... or I tear them off."

Maddie froze at the sound of his threat. She didn't want this perverted shadow man to tear her clothes off. She knew that if she went home with her clothes torn to shreds, Karen will wonder how she got her clothes riped up, question her about it and badger her until she answered. She didn't know any believable excuse she could tell Karen for a situation like that and she definitely couldn't tell her the truth for she knew that Karen would either not believe her or think she has become mentally ill.

"Now do you want to unbutton? or have them riped?" Pitch asked her again taunting her. Maddie felt extremely terrified and uncomfortable but she did as she was requested to do and began to unbutton her clothing, her hands shaking in the process. One by one she undid every button before stopping at the waist, her clothes opening up to reveal her round, firm C-cuped sized breasts clothed in a white push-up bra. Pitch stared at the girl's chest with lustful grin on his face.

"You don't dissapoint my dear." He mumured to as he crawled on top of the girl, making her lie back down on the bed. He then put his hands on her clothed breasts and began to fondle them.

Maddie just lied there petrified, feeling terribly humiliated and dirty as the sick Boogeyman on top of her continued to grope her. She closed her eyes tight shut, not wanting to look at the villian who was touching her, sobbing as tears rolled down the side of her face. It all felt weird and wrong. She began to believe that she really was a slut because she was just lying there letting Pitch touch her in a filthy way when she should be screaming and fighting him in order to get away from his dirty touches.

Without warning, Maddie felt the Boogeyman press his awful lips to hers. No! No! she didn't want that. She didn't want this horrible man kissing her on the mouth and she didn't want him to touch her anymore. She wanted Pitch to get off her and let her go. When Pitch pushed his foul tongue into her mouth, Maddie used that as an oppertunity to escape his grasp. She bit down on his tongue real hard as if she were a dog biting its tug toy causing the Nightmare King to jolt back and cry out in pain. As Pitch covered up his bleeding mouth, Maddie pulled her right leg back and kicked the Boogeyman in the stomac with full force, causing him fall off the bed and onto the cold stone floor. While Pitch lied down on floor, hugging his stomac while groaning in pain, Maddie clutched her uniform togeather with one hand to cover up, hastily crawled off the bed and started to flee.

She didn't get far however as she managed to only get a few feet away when something materialized in front of her out of thin air, blocking her way and making her shierk in alarm. It was a large frightening horse, made of black sand that seemed to mirror a darker and more sinister version of the Sandman's dreamsand. The horse gave Maddie a death glare with its eerie, glowing golden eyes, repeatedly stomping its front hooves to the floor and whinnying at her in an agressive manner as if it was threatening the girl to get back over to the bed.

Terrified, Maddie spun around in order to run the other way. But as she did, she unexpectedly bumped into the Boogeyman who looked down at her with his sharp yellow teeth furiously clenched shut, appearing wrathful towards the girl for biting his tongue and kicking him. Pitch grabbed Maddie by the hair and dragged her back to the bed, the girl screaming in pain and fear as his dirty fingernails digged into her skull. After throwing Maddie back onto the bed, he climbed on top of her and smacked her in the face really hard with the palm of his hand, making the young girl cry out it pain as her cheek turned red.

"So you want to play rough do you?" He sneered as his evil smile returned to his face.

"No Pitch please! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Maddie begged him as she started blubbering. She saw apathy on his face however, right before he pushed the skirt of her uniform up and pulled down her panties. Maddie's eyes widened with horror as she realized what he was about to. She screamed and called out for help while Pitch slipped his rob off and undid his pants.

"Scream all you want! We are hundreds of feet underground! No will be able to hear you!" Pitch told her as he lied down on top of her.

Maddie flailed her arm at the Boogeyman, repeatedly smacking the him as she continued to scream in terror. She was so desperate to get away, she even unintentionally ripped out a chunk of the Nightmare King's hair trying to keep his face away from hers. Having enough, Pitch grabbed both of the girl's wrists and pined them over her head with one hand. He then pulled himself out of his pants, lined himself up and pushed into her making the girl scream in pain and horror.

As the Boogeyman continued to thrust in and out of her, Maddie started crying heavily in terror and mortification, not wanting to believe that this was really happening to her. Her tears only satisfied Pitch as he laughed, hinting that he enjoys scaring someone to the point of tears. When he leaned down to place kisses on her neck, Maddie began to stare blankly at the ceiling, becoming motionless from this awful experience. This was not how she wanted to loose her virginity. She wanted to wait until marriage and do it with someone she loves and trusts. It shattered her now knowing that it is unlikely to happen. She felt violated by this horrible man as he continued to take something she knew she could never ever get back. All she wanted right now was to have her soul lift away from her body so she can no longer feel what was being done to her. She even began to wish that she was dead.

Pitch picked up the pace and continued until Maddie felt him release inside her, making her feel even more disgusting. The Nightmare King collapsed on top of Maddie and panted in her ear, trying to catch his breath before pulling out and fixing himself up. As soon as Pitch was off her, Maddie pulled her panties back up and her skirt down before she rolled onto her side, curling herself up in a fetal position as tears continued to fall from her eyes. She has visited websites for people who experienced rape and read their stories feeling complete sympathy for them, but she never thought that something like that could ever happen to her. Feeling confused, she began to wonder how she could have let this happen to her. She didn't drink, smoke, do drugs or anything of the sort. She was a good girl yet this still happened to her.

"Well it's been fun, but it's time for you to get going now." Pitch told her as if nothing happened. Wondering what he meant, Maddie looked up and to her horror saw him holding the same chloroformed rag he knocked her out with before. Not wanting to be knocked out again, Maddie tried to fight him yet Pitch managed to hold it to her mouth and nose once again making her black out.

When she woke up, Maddie found herself back in her car parked on the side of the road. She began to start crying again as she remembered what had happened, feeling ashamed and frightened.

 **Well that was truly terrifying. I bet you all are probably wondering how this is going to effect the story. The only thing I can tell you is that the whole experiece is going make things hard for Maddie. Once again, rape is not about love and sex, it's about power and control. Pitch raped Maddie because he wanted scare her in the worst way possible. And why? you might be thinking, well you'll have to keep reading the saga in order to find out.**

 **Please review, let me know what you think of this chapter. Next chapter coming soon.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 18**

 **July 22nd, 2015 9:55 p.m.**

The traumatizing experience she had just endured made it difficult for her to concentrate on driving. Maddie felt so horrified and ashamed by the devastating memory that twice she didn't notice the streetlight turn from red to green, only realizing when she hears the people behind her honking and shouting at her to get moving in a frustrating tone. As they went in the other lane and drove alongside her, Maddie could see them looking at her with a displeased expression as they discovered that the one who keeps holding up traffic was a teenager, believing that teenagers are immature self-centered brats who don't appriciate the rules of driving which made her feel really ashamed.

Maddie couldn't get those horrible things that had been done to her out of her mind. She could still feel that disgusting pervert inside her. What the Boogeyman did to her made her feel used, filthy but most of all confused. What could have given Pitch the idea to do something like that to her? Was it because she provoked him by biting and kicking him? Did she lead him on with her fear? Or maybe it's because she opened her blouse and allowed him to touch her when he ordered her to and it made him think it was okay to force himself on her. Whatever the reason was, Maddie believed that what the Nightmare King did to her was her own fault, that she should have fought him harder, kept her blouse buttoned up or maybe even kept her legs closed.

When she pulled into the Bennett's driveway, Maddie stared blankly at the house, held back by her thoughts of misery. She felt too ashamed and scared to tell anyone what was done to her. Besides, who would she even turn to if she ever gained the confidence to speak? The adults would either not believe her or think she has gone insane and have her put in a mental hospital. The children would definitely believe her but they were too young to know what sexual intercourse was and she didn't want to put the very idea in their heads or frighten them with her horrible experience. As for the Guardians, they would probably understand and believe her since Pitch is their enemy, but Maddie didn't have the courage to tell them, feeling too afraid of how they might react. What if they tried to go after Pitch and make him pay for what he did to her? If one of them got hurt or killed, it would be her fault. But worse, what if they become too disgusted by what was done to her to even want to be around her anymore? The Guardians were the nicest people she has ever met in her entire life and she would be devestated if her friendship with then was destroyed. So for those reasons, Maddie decided to stay silent, believing that in time she would be able to completly forget about what Pitch did to her.

When she went inside the house, Maddie was noticed by Karen who was looking worried sick.

"Thank heavens you're safe!" Karen said feeling relieved when she saw Maddie walked in "Maddie where have you been? It's almost ten!"

"I... got stuck in traffic." Maddie lied, forcing herself to sound as normal as possible "I'm sorry, I should have called."

"It's okay, I'm just glad you're alright." Karen told her "I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, there's some leftovers in the fridge."

"No thank you, I'm not hungry." Maddie responded.

Karen looked at Maddie with a confused expression. The girl always responded with a yum and a smile of great delight whenever spaghetti and meatballs was made for dinner for it was one of her favorite dishes. The girl responding as if her least favorite food was made for supper caught Karen quite off guard.

"Is something wrong?" She asked Maddie feeling quite concerned.

"I'm... I'm just not feeling well tonight." Maddie answered not making eye contact with her "I feel nauseous."

"Oh, well do you want me to get you something for it?" Karen asked.

"No thank you, I'll just sleep it off." Maddie responded as she began to make her way upstairs.

"Well okay... goodnight Maddie." Karen told her still feeling concerned.

When she reached the top of the stairs, Maddie headed straight for the bathroom without any second thoughs. She locked the bathroom door searched every nook and cranny with uneasiness, fearing that she would discover another camera hidden by Pitch that would film her nude again. Finding no camera anywhere - which releaved only a little bit - Maddie turned the shower knob and waited until the water turned warm before steping into the shower without taking her uniform off. She stood there letting the water run down her body before slowly taking off her clothes bit by bit, letting her now soaked uniform fall to her feet along with her panties and bra.

Maddie ran the bar of soap over her skin, wanting to scrub the Nightmare King's taint off her. If only there were a special kind of soap that could clean away one's traumatizing memories, that would be something the girl would definitly buy. As she continued to slowly lather herself up however, she looked at the soap and instantly a glimpse of a terrifying scene from the horrible experience flashed before her eyes, black and white like an old time silent film. For about five secondes, Maddie found herself back in Pitch's domain, viewing that sickening video of herself in the bathtub all over again.

That five seconde flashback was just enough to make Maddie flinch in shock and drop the bar of soap when she snapped out of it, returning to reality. Seeing the bar of soap on the ground and having heard of the expression "Don't drop the soap" before, Maddie slowly collapsed down to the shower floor curled up into a ball with her fingers laced through her wet hair and once again began to cry, trying her best to keep herself from sobbing so loud that someone in the house could hear her, feeling miserable because of what Pitch did to her. That horrible man took away her pride, her security, her virginity but most of all her innocence. For that reason, Maddie now only saw herself as dirty disgusting unworthy whore who doesn't deserve to be pitied or loved.

The broken girl still felt filthy even when she finished taking her shower. She acted extremely vigilant as she entered her room, hugging her fluffy bathrobe around her real tight as if it would fall off her body any minute. As she went over to her window to close the curtains so she could change into her sleepwear, Maddie noticed the full moon outside lighting up the night sky like a nightlight and immediately thought of the Man in the Moon. See the Man in the Moon before going to bed always brought a smile to her face and made her feel great bliss knowing that someone so mighty and great as him was watching over her and the children of Earth... but not this time. After what happened tonight, Maddie looked at the Man in the Moon feeling extremely troubled. She feared that the guardian of the children of Earth knows that she had been deflowered by the Nightmare King against her will and was planning on imforming the guardians about it. She didn't want him to tell them, she didn't want them to know, she didn't want _anyone_ to know.

"Man in the Moon." Maddie said to him with a brittle tone of voice "If you know what Pitch did to me, please don't tell the guardians, I can't bear the thought of them knowing. What if they try to make that horrible man pay? If something terrible happened to one of them because of that... it would be my fault... please don't make me live with that."

The Moon only stared back at her in silence. Maddie didn't expect him to respond but she had a feeling that he somehow got her message.

Falling asleep became really challenging for the girl as she feared the Boogeyman would return if she did. She only feel asleep when it began to unexpetedly start raining real hard outside. As Maddie drifted off into a deep slumber, she began to get the feeling that she was being watched again yet it didn't feel threatening this time, instead it felt sad and guilty as if whoever was watching her this time felt real sorry for her. Maddie was already beginning to start the sleep cycle before she could even wonder what the sympathizing watchful feeling was.

 **Finally finished! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, sorry it took so long, I was having another case of writer's block. Those of you who are fans of the book series probably have an idea of what the rain and sympathizing watchful feeling Maddie felt was. If not you'll have to read the rest of my saga in order to find out what it is.**

 **Reviews would be very appreciated, I would like to get your opinion on this. Next chapter coming soon.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 19**

 **July 23rd, 2015 2:57 a.m.**

The sound of barking coming from outside the house cause Maddie's eyes to shot right open, waking her from a deep slumber. She lifted her head off of her pillow in confusion and saw Ike lying at the foot of her bed with his own head raised up in bewilderment, having heard the barking sound as well so she knew it definintely wasn't coming from him. She then figured that it was coming from Abby, barking out of boredom in order to catch the attention of anyone inside the house so they can let her in.

Wanting to prevent the children or even the whole neighborhood from being woken up, Maddie climbed out of bed and quietly made her way downstairs to the back door where the barking sound was closest.

"Abby!... Abby get in here!" Maddie called out when she opened the door. There was no response from the Bennett's greyhound. The barking had stopped and there was no sight of the tall, slender dog anywhere. Maddie called out to here again, still no response. The girl rolled her eyes in annoyance. The dog was actually going to make her walk around outside in the dark, barefooted and in her P.J.'s.

Maddie closed the door behind her as she walked across the porch, down the steps and onto the wet grass. When she called out to Abby again, the wind started to blow a little harder, causing the swing tied to the tree to sway and the leaves to rustle in an eerie manner. Then there was that feeling again. The feeling of being watched and it was back to feeling threatening and dreadful. Knowing that it meant that Pitch was lurking around in the shadows somewhere, Maddie decided to speed up her search for Abby, wanting to get back inside as soon as possible, fearing that the Boogeyman would jump her and violate her again.

"Abby come here girl!... come her!" Maddie called out once more. This whole searching for a greyhound in the dark of night while trying to avoid maniac was really starting to get to her. She felt like a final girl in a horror movie being stalked by the killer who at any moment would jump out and try to kill the girl. The horror movie that would compare to Maddie's situation the most would have to be "A Nightmare on Elm Street" for it features a girl trying to avoid being killed by the villian Freddy Kruger whom just like Pitch was also nicknamed the Boogeyman, thrived on fear and stalked people in their dreams, turning them into nightmares.

When she noticed that the gate to the wooden fence that enclosed the backyard was opened, Maddie slowly and cautiously crept towards it in order find out if she'll find either Abby or - hopefully not - the Nightmare King. But when she looked around the corner, what she saw horrified her and almost made her vomit. Lying down on her side lifeless in the grass, eyes wide opened, mouth gaped was Abby. The greyhound had been gruesomely disembowled, stomac cut wide open with intestines spilled out and blood oozing onto the grass. Maddie clapsed both of her hands over her mouth, wimpering in horror as she slowly backed away never taking her shocked filled blue eyes off of the butchered carcass.

"I was just petting her." A familar evil voice said to her in playful malicious tone of voice. Maddie looked up and saw Pitch standing above the dead greyhound holding a blood covered Bowie knife in his left hand. The Boogeyman chuckled and a sinister smirk formed across his face as he eyed the terrified girl.

Before she could even start to run, Maddie suddenly found herself back in her bedroom, jolting awake in a cold sweat, breathing heavily with her heart racing. Her eyes scaned the room, believeing she was still having a nightmare before she inhaled and exhaled with relief, calming down the rate of her heartbeat.

"It was just a bad dream." Maddie muttered to herself as she cradled her head into her hands. She glanced over at Ike who was fast asleep before she carefully crawled out of bed and softly made her way to the bathroom, not wanting to wake anyone in the house up. She closed the door behind her, turned on the light and turned the knobs on the sink, making cold water run out of the faucet like a waterful. She then cupped her hands under the running water, leaned her head towards the sink and splashed the cool liquid all over her face. After drying her face off with the nearest hand towel within reach, Maddie looked into the mirror and stared at her own reflection.

"It was just a bad dream." the girl whispered to herself again "It wasn't real... Abby is still alive... You're safe... Everything is okay."

After giving herself a silent pep talk, Maddie was able to make herself feel completly at ease before going back to her bedroom in order to go back to sleep. Her feeling of tranquility would not last long however for just as she was about to crawl back into her bed, she suddenly felt hands grab onto both of her ankles, tugging her feet out from under her making the girl fall onto her back with a sheirk of fright. Maddie continued to scream in terror as the hands began to drag her under the bed. She desperately held onto the bed for her life which proved to be useless as the hands pulled her harder, making the girl slip her grasp thereby dragging her further under the bed and into the darkness. Maddie felt a heavy weight pin her down by her shoulders as she continued to scream and thrash around.

"Maddie wake up! Maddie!" She suddenly heard Karen's voice call out to her and the very next moment, she was once again in her bed still screaming and thrashing around as Karen tightly wrapped her arms around the traumatized girl in order to restrain her in a comforting way and calm her down "It's over Sweetie! It's over now!"

Maddie stopped her thrashing and screaming, hyperventilating with wide eyes full of horror and skin damped with cold sweat as she began to fully realize that she was awake now, being held in Karen's arms. What she had just endured was a nightmare within a nightmare, which can be completely terrifying for a dreamer because it makes it hard for them to know if they are awake or still asleep. Wanting to feel safe, Maddie wrapped her arms tightly around Karen who continued to cradle and comfort the terrified girl. Maddie clenched her eyes shut and continued to whimper. Neither she nor Karen noticed Jamie and Sophie standing in the bedroom doorway with a confused expression on Sophie's face and a worried one on Jamie's. Jamie could tell that the nightmares Maddie had just suffered from was Pitch's doing and had a feeling that the Boogeyman did something terrible to her. The only thing he couldn't figure out was what Pitch did to the girl and why.

 **Sorry this chapter took so long to make and you probably already know why. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I obviously got the inspiration for this chapter from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. I apologize if I disgusted anyone with the depiction of Abby's gory carcess. Don't worry the Bennett's greyhound is not really dead, it was just a nightmare Maddie was having so Abby is still alive.**

 **I would very much appreciate reviews on this chapter and any of the other chapters you guys read, I'd love to hear your opinion on this! Next chapter coming soon.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 20**

 **August 5th, 2015 1:25 p.m.**

Two weeks have gone by since that awful night. Instead of joining Jamie and his friends as they played on the playground, something she had always enjoyed doing, Maddie sat on a nearby swing set and watched, having no energy or desire to play with the kids. It causes her great pain to see other people be happy as the world keeps spinning around the sun while she's sitting here with a great hole of agony that had been punched through her soul, caused by an event that had scared her for life.

There were many nights where she didn't sleep a wink for she knew that whenever she did, a horrifying nightmare that the Boogeyman himself weaved togeather just for her would haunt her in her sleep. Most of the nightmares would be about that awful night, and they would feel so real that Maddie would begin to believe she was being violated all over again. Sometimes a few details would be added to the nightmare to make it even worse such as an audience laughing and cheering as they watch her get defiled, or the frat boys the attempted to attack her after her shift that one night would appear and take turns after the Nightmare King was finished with her.

These nightmares had become so unbearable that it made Maddie desperate to avoid sleeping, using techniques such as dunking her head in cold water filled with ice, drinking energy drinks and caffeinated beverages, and even taking the kind of pills that help people stay awake for longer periods of time. Sometimes she even thought of cutting or burning herself in order to stay awake or even going as far as cutting off her own eyelids. She decided not to do that kind of stuff however, for she knew that the burns and cuts would make people suspicious and the tought of being blinded by her own blood if she went through with the idea of cutting off her own eyelids made her cringe and shudder just.

Having trouble with sleep was not the only thing. Maddie was also not eating and when she did she would only eat a small proportion of what's on her plate and then secretly feed the rest to either Abby or Ike. Additionally, there were times where she would ramdomly zone out and forget to concentrate on what she was doing. This was shown during her shift at Cafe 56 when she would either get a customer's order wrong, forget something they asked for or bring an order to the wrong table. Whenever it was her turn to go on stage and sing, Maddie's performance wouldn't go so well as she would either mumble, stutter or hesitate during the song, sing off key or sing the wrong lyrics, causing the customers to boo and hiss, demanding her to get off the stage, which would make the girl feel even worse. It didn't take long for Wade to notice her distracted behavior and therefore become concern for her. Maddie was one of the resturant's best employees, so it was odd for her to suddenly start performing her job so poorly. He couldn't quite figure out why though and whenever he asked, Maddie would always deny that anything was wrong and would become offensive if Wade asked if she was sure that nothing was wrong. He would then remind her that the tone of voice she using was not considered acceptable at work, which would make the girl feel guilty and thereby apologize to him.

"Hey Maddie." Jack's voice suddenly said to her in a friendly greeting. Maddie had been so distracted however that she didn't notice him flying over towards her and suddenly hearing him right next to her startled her so much that she screamed really loud, causing the children and the parents visiting the playground to stop what they were doing and stare at her with a confusion. Realizing that it was only Jack that was saying hello to her and noticing the scene she had made caused Maddie to become so overwhelmed with embarrasment that it made her want to hide until the people staring have forgotten her face.

"Are you alright?" A red haired woman in her late twenties asked in a concern manner. Maddie looked at the woman, recognizing her right away. She couldn't remeber the woman's name for they had only met once but she owned the home daycare center that Karen would drop Sophie off at before work during the times Maddie wasn't in town. The woman was visiting the park with kids she was looking after.

"I... I'm alrigt, I'm fine, I just saw a bee, I'm deathly afraid of those things ." Maddie lied to her. She wasn't being truthful on two thing. The first thing was that she was obiviously not ok, not after what had been done to her not too long ago while the second was having a great fear of bees. In truth she was actually quite fascinated with bees, knowing that they only sting you if you provoke or scare them and how important they are to the flowers since these insects pollinate them to help them grow so beautiful. Everyone at the park bought what they heard Maddie say however and continued on with their activities. Maddie turned to Jack and greeted him in return, keeping her tone of voice as normal as possible so as not to give him any impression that something was wrong.

The Guardian of Fun wasn't buying her fake normal appearance however. Out of all the times they have crossed each other's paths, never before had Maddie jumped with fright at the sound of his voice. The girl didn't look well either. There were dark circles around her eyes, not to mention the bags underneath and the red veins extended over the whites, making it obivious to tell that she hadn't been sleeping lately. Her voluminous wavy black hair looked dull, lifeless and disheveled and her flawless rosy fair skin was now ghost white and malnourished. The girl looked just awful and Jack realized that she seems to look a little shakened up, almost as though she'd just had a demon exorcised out of her body. Something was wrong, the frost boy just knew it. He knew he had to help Maddie out in some way but first he must know what is troubleing his friend.

"Are you sure you're okay Maddie? You look a little shakened up." Jack asked her.

"I'm just feeling a bit jumpy today, that's all." Maddie answered him, once again trying to sound like nothing is wrong.

"I can see that, but why are you feeling jumpy?" The Frost Boy asked, his eyebrows raised in concern and confusion " And you don't look so good. Maddie if something is wrong please tell me! You're my friend and I want to help but I can't if you don't tell me what is wron-"

"Look I already told you I'm fine! I'm just tired all right! Now quite bugging me!" Maddie snapped at him. The girl's sudden outburst caused Jack to stop talking and stumble back a bit with a nonplussed hurt look on his face. Seeing the look on Jack's face made Maddie realize what she had just done, causing her to gasp in shock and her eyes to widen with horror. She has never snapped at the boy before and she never ever wanted to, but her weariness and distress had managed to get the best of her. Maddie felt ashamed of herself, wanting to take back what she had just done to the one guardian who was her closest friend. If Jack wanted to avoid her for a while because of that, she wouldn't blame him, knowing that it was the way she had just treated him that would cause him to feel that way.

"I... I'm sorry Jack! I'm so sorry I... I didn't mean to snap at you! I'm sorry!" She told him as her voice began to crack. If that wasn't bad enough, Maddie suddenly notice tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to spill out and run down her face. Not wanting Jack or anyone else seeing her cry, Maddie quickly got up and sprinted away from the frost boy, running over to the restroom before any of tears could fall from her eyes. Jack looked on at her, feeling helpless and confused.

"What was that all about?" Claude wondered as he and his friends walked up to Jack while looking at Maddie as she ran towards the restroom in tears.

"I... I have no idea." Jack quietly answered still looking over towards the restroom, long after seeing Maddie dissapear inside. This was the first time he had ever seen the girl become frusterated and the way she had just snapped at him still stung the guardian of fun.

"Jack, I think there's wrong with Maddie." Jamie said to him with a worried expression.

"Yea, she never wants to play with us anymore." Cupcake agreed, sharing Jamie's feelings about the whole situation.

Jack looked at the kids, the worried feeling now spreading to him. Something was definitely wrong and he had a feeling that Maddie wants to tell him but is too afraid to do so. He was now determined to find out what happened to his friend and to help her, yet in order to do so, he was going to need help from the other guardians.

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, again sorry for the delay.**

 **Evie, a woman who I roleplay with on Tumblr makes an appeareance in this chapter. She is the daycare center owner who asked Maddie if she was all right after she screamed. Evie is such an amazing woman. She is a pre-school teacher, a follower of Jesus and like me is a fan of Rise of the Guardians and The Guardians of Childhood. Her main blog contains sketches of the characters of the fandom she had drawn herself. Her drawings are seriously amazing, they are filled with so much details and expressions. If you have a Tumblr account and are a fan of the series you should totally follow her. Her Tumblr page is called Evie's Sketchies. She also has two other blog pages. One is a roleplay blog of Tsarina Lunanoff (The Man in the Moon's mother), and the other is a roleplay blog of Katherine (aka Mother Goose).**

 **Follow Evie on Tumblr. Next chapter coming soon.**


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